USPS expecting 16-billion deliveries for holidays

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And you think you’re busy with the holidays.

The United States Postal Service says they expect to deliver nearly 15 billion pieces of mail and 900 million packages, for a total of nearly 16 billion deliveries between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day.

“The Postal Service is ready to deliver for the holiday season. We have increased our operating capacity to include additional transportation and extended our delivery windows,” said Megan J. Brennan, Postmaster General and CEO. “Our dedicated employees are proud to deliver more packages to homes than any other shipper.”

Once again the Postal Service is expanding its Sunday delivery operations to locations with high package volumes beginning Nov. 25. The Postal Service already delivers packages on Sundays in most major cities, and anticipates delivering more than 8 million packages on Sundays this December. Mail carriers will also deliver packages on Christmas Day in select locations.

The Postal Service also processes mail for overseas Department of Defense and Department of State recipients.

The Holiday Shipping Deadlines are as follows:

· Dec. 4 – APO/FPO/DPO (ZIP Code 093 only) Priority Mail and First-Class Mail
· Dec. 11 – APO/FPO/DPO (all other ZIP Codes) Priority Mail and First-Class Mail
· Dec. 14 – USPS Retail Ground
· Dec. 18 – APO/FPO/DPO (except ZIP Code 093) USPS Priority Mail Express
· Dec. 20 – First-Class Mail (including greeting cards)
· Dec. 20 – First-class packages (up to 15.99 ounces)
· Dec. 20 – Hawaii to mainland Priority Mail and First-Class Mail
· Dec. 20 – Priority Mail
· Dec. 20 – Alaska to mainland Priority Mail and First-Class Mail
· Dec. 22 – Alaska to mainland Priority Mail Express
· Dec. 22 – Hawaii to mainland Priority Mail Express
· Dec. 22 – Priority Mail Express