MINNEAPOLIS — It is "D day" for delivery men and women around the country.
This week is expected to be the busiest of the holiday mailing and shopping season with many people rushing to mail gifts and cards in time for Christmas next week. But despite the unique supply chain headaches and labor shortages of this year, shippers kept up with demand and are on track to finish the year strong.
"This our season," said Desai Abdul-Razzaaq, a spokesman for the United States Postal Service. "This is when we shine and do our best."
The postal service estimates that it will process and deliver nationwide nearly 2.3 billion pieces of mail including cards and packages just this week as it reaches several of its deadlines to ensure items are delivered in time for Christmas including retail ground service by Wednesday, First-Class Mail by Friday and Priority Mail by Saturday.
FedEx's Ground services shipping deadline is also Wednesday. While UPS suggested ship dates are later, one local franchise owner recommended consumers send packages this Wednesday to make sure they get there on time.
Already this holiday season, the postal service estimates the amount of packages it is processing in Minnesota has increased by about 6% compared to the same time last year. Nationally, the agency has been preparing for the holiday rush since the beginning of the year after package delivery last holiday grew by nearly 50%.
The postal service hired thousands of employees since then, and it added 40,000 seasonal hires for this holiday. It also leased 13 million square feet of additional space to help address space constraints.
A more than 300,000-square-foot postal support annex in suburban Eagan features a new package sorting machine that can process thousands of packages an hour, or up to 12 times faster than manual sorting.
"It's just been insanity," said Kimberly Thompson, who has worked for USPS for almost 25 years, as she finished up her Tuesday route delivering to a St. Paul apartment complex. On the busy corner of Grand Avenue and Dale Street, Thompson's postal van shared the block with a FedEx truck and then a UPS truck.
Thompson, who has been working overtime, had a 13-hour day Monday and only had enough time to eat carrots and almonds as she delivered packages and mail beginning at 6 a.m. She can walk as much as 30,000 steps during a shift. Holiday packages continue to increase each year, Thompson said.
"It's very overwhelming and then you have the weather to deal with," she said.
As of late last week, major parcel carriers have shown high on-time performance during the last three busy shipping weeks including during Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday, according to software company ShipMatrix.
By taking into account express service as on time if delivered by end of the day and ground service on time if delivered within one extra day, the USPS, UPS, and FedEx reported nearly 100% on-time performance for the busy shipping week of Nov. 28 through Dec. 4.
ShipMatrix recommends consumers place orders by today unless the retailer is shipping the items via faster express services. Even if retailers do promise fast delivery, customers should be cautious as mail carriers have added extra days to their commitment times during the holiday peak.
———
