A steady stream of customers at the Montclair Post Office in Denver trudged across the snowpacked parking lot Monday morning, many of them juggling several wrapped packages as the busiest day of the shipping year unfolded for mailers and those in line.
Millions of boxes, packages, envelopes, letters and cards on Monday zipped across the country and beyond as senders hoped their gifts would land beneath Christmas trees in time for Santa to grab the credit.
Nationwide, the U.S. Postal Service expected to handle 750 million pieces of mail Monday, with Colorado postal workers handling 700,000 holiday packages and 5 million holiday cards and letters.
“It’s the busiest day of the year,” said Marcela Juarez-Rivera, a USPS spokeswoman.
At the Montclair station, 8275 E. 11th Ave., Mary Anne Sine, a teacher at nearby Bishop Machebeuf Catholic High School, saved precious time by using an automated USPS kiosk.
Sine shipped three holiday boxes — bound for Virginia, Florida and Michigan — and bought postage stamps from the kiosk, which had a line about five people deep. “It’s wonderful,” Sine gushed of the automated aide. “It’s a great, great thing.”
Sine, who had used a USPS kiosk once before at another post office, followed the digital instructions, including weighing packages, before closing the transaction by paying with plastic.
Sine’s experience proved better than that of Steve Ridley, who stood in line with 20 other customers.
Ridley, who was shipping two boxes to family in Southern California, said he was also mailing cards internationally and needed a clerk’s assistance to tab the costs of postage.
“I’ll stand and practice my deep breaths,” Ridley said as he slipped into the line, which stretched out a door and down a hall.
Other people arriving with packages walked into the station, viewed the line and fled. “I’ll be back tomorrow at 8 o’clock,” one man announced to no one in particular.
About 45 blocks north of the Montclair station, employees at the Denver Bulk Mail Center were handling about 300,000 holiday packages. The center, USPS’s largest sorting facility in the state, typically moves about 180,000 parcels daily, said Juarez-Rivera.
The center was buzzing: Electric-powered forklifts unloaded and loaded trucks as parcels were sorted on a long conveyor belt. Digital scanners read bar codes as packages whizzed by, assigning hoppers for the parcels to be automatically dumped into. Then the bundles were picked up and shipped on. The conveyor belt can handle up to 5,000 packages an hour.
Saturday is the deadline for regular delivery of mail bound for one of the other 47 states in the continental U.S. by Dec. 25. Monday is the deadline for in-state mail for pre-Christmas delivery. Express Mail will be available to major U.S. cities through Dec. 23.
Considering massive holiday volumes, the earlier a package is sent, the more likely it is to arrive on time, Juarez-Rivera said.
“We do advise customers to always mail early,” she said. “Adverse weather, like the snow we just got, can affect deliveries.”
Kieran Nicholson: 303-954-1822 or knicholson@denverpost.com
