U.S. Postal Service sees busiest shipping week of the year
CHICAGO (WLS) -- This is the busiest week of the holiday season for the U.S. Postal Service. They expect to deliver nearly 200 million packages between now and Christmas Eve.
Carrier Darryl Daniels loaded up the mail he will deliver Monday on his route in the McKinley Park neighborhood. It's going to be a long day in what will be the busiest mailing and delivery week of the year for the U.S. Post Office.
He's been on the job 39 years and says that recently, he's been delivering less Christmas cards and more heavy boxes.
"With the Internet and everybody has their products online, the packages have just multiplied tenfold," Daniels said.
The post office says nearly 200 billion packages are expected to be delivered between Monday and Christmas Eve.
"Sometimes we start earlier to get the packages out because there's so many of them," he said.
Nitin Taliti has many Christmas cards he's mailing that he hopes will get there in time, even though he's cutting it close.
"Always last minute. Always last minute. That's normal, typical, man," Taliti said.
He mailed nearly 70 cards from the main branch of the post office on Harrison Monday. That's where Bryce Minetz and her 5-month-old son were waiting to mail presents she bought from the wish lists of some less fortunate kids as part of Operation Santa.
"I normally don't mail presents. I'm fortunate enough to be close to family. But especially with this one, it's been extra special this year and I wanted to share the love," Minetz said.
Back on the route, postal carrier Daniels said he keeps safety in mind while making his deliveries and always keeps an eye on his locked truck. He just wants to make sure everyone has a happy holiday.
"If you have a package coming, we're gonna do the best we can to get it to you," Daniels said.
The Postal Service is reminding people to clear any snow and ice from sidewalks, stairs and mailboxes.
If you want your packages delivered by Christmas, Wednesday is the last day for priority mail and Friday is the last day for priority mail express.
For UPS, the last day to ship is Friday. For FedEx, the last day to ship is Thursday.
DHL SEES BUSIEST SHIPPING DAY OF YEAR
You could call Raffi Shant one of Santa's elves delivering packages to good girls and boys since 1986.
Monday, his delivery truck is full on DHL's peak shipping and operations day.
"It makes people happy as soon as they see DHL arriving to their door, they open the door, everybody is smiling. Oh it's here it's here!" DHL courier Raffi Shant said.
DHL, which specializes in international shipping and courier delivery services, gave ABC7 a peek inside it's Chicago facility near O'Hare Monday morning. They have been planning for this day since February.
"Hiring open houses, opening up a new gateway in Chicago...we opened up a new station last year and it kinda resolved some of the volume issues we had. Everybody we hired back in February and March was to get ready for today," DHL's Area Operation's Manager Joe Yates said.
DHL predicts that this year's pickup and delivery volumes will be 26 percent higher than last year.
"It's e-commerce. It's the electronics. It's the ease to order it. We're tied into some of the biggest e-commerce shippers in the world and that's where the volume comes from," Yates said.
DHL said high volumes of Apple products are being delivered Monday along with clothing, like holiday sweaters.
"Everything has gotta be delivered. Once you leave here, everything has to be delivered by tonight," Shant said.
Later on Monday, DHL is offering its employees free massages at the warehouse and pizza.
