BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WIAT) — With 20 days left before Christmas, there is still time to get that special package for that special someone.
The United States Postal Service suggests shipping your gifts as soon as possible. Birmingham Postmaster John Richardson said the deadline to send off first-class letters or parcels is Dec. 17. Richardson said if you’re doing priority shipping, you want to ensure your package shipped out by Dec. 19.
“If you are a procrastinator, use our priority express for Dec. 23,” Richardson said. “If the public can get it to us in those time periods, we’ll make sure it gets home.”
Richardson said to make sure you place your package in a sturdy box, and he said USPS can provides those boxes at their post offices.
USPS has expanded its operation this holiday season.
Over 240 packaging processing machines and 41 thousand employees are some things USPS say they’ve done to help get packages out this holiday.
Richardson said they have increased daily processing capacity significantly from last year.
“Last year, we could handle 52 million packages a day; now, it’s up to 60 million a day,” he said
Richardson said weather is the only thing that could delay packages this holiday season.