Today is the busiest day of the year for dropping off mail, according to the U.S. Postal Service.
The country’s 37,000 post offices expect to receive almost 1 billion pieces of mail, mostly packages and gifts. They’re expecting about 275,000,000 cards and letters to be dropped off today, about three times the normal daily volume.
Wednesday will be the busiest day for letter carriers delivering those pieces of mail.
Locally, the downtown post office handled about 110,000 letters and cards, plus about 4,500 packages.
“We were staffed for it,” said Derik Sharpe, a supervisor. “We had most of it shipped out of here by 1:30 p.m. We staggered our staff beginning at 1 a.m. through 8 p.m. tonight.”
Even the customer service line to buy stamps or send off packages was about normal, with a backlog of up to 10 people waiting in line. “That line has an ebb and a flow to it,” Sharpe said. “We try to anticipate it, but it has it’s almost impossible.”
Mail to troops in Iraq and Afghanistan set a record this year, four times the normal volume. In fact, during the first 14 days of December, the Postal Service filled 12 additional 747 cargo aircraft with mail to the Middle East, almost one a day. The Postal Service estimated that about 20 million pounds of mail will be sent to sevice members around the world this holiday season.
The deadline for sending regular mail to the troops has passed. Express mail through Tuesday will still reach the troops by Dec. 25.
Mail anywhere in the world will have to be sent express no later than today.
For domestic mail, all letters, cards and packages must be mailed by Dec. 20 to be delivered by Dec. 25. Express mail can be dropped off as late as Dec. 22.
For information, go to or call 1-800-275-8777.
Mike McPhee: 303-954-1409 or mmcphee@denverpost.com
