DETROIT, MI — The notion of the “busiest day” is a thing of Christmas past, due to the early online shopping. The forecast shows the busiest week will be December 13-18, when nearly 2.3 billion pieces of mail, including greeting cards and packages, will be processed and delivered the week of Dec. 13. To help our customers get those cards, letters and packages to their destination in time for the holidays, we will be open on Sundays Dec. 12 and Dec. 19 at the following Post Office locations.

 

The Postal Service recommends the following mailing and shipping deadlines for expected delivery by Dec. 25.

• Dec. 15 — USPS Retail Ground service
• Dec. 17 — First-Class Mail service (including greeting cards)
• Dec. 17 — First-Class packages (up to 15.99 ounces)
• Dec. 18 — Priority Mail service
• Dec. 23 — Priority Mail Express service

The Postal Service plans all year for the peak holiday season. This year’s preparations include leasing 7.5 million square feet of additional space across more than 40 annexes to handle the increase in the number of packages being mailed. The Postal Service is also currently hiring for more than 40,000 seasonal positions to help process and deliver the mail.

Since April, the Postal Service has installed 92 of 112 new package sorting machines, reflecting the “Delivering for America” plan’s $40 billion of planned investment over 10 years. Additionally, more than 50 machines that can sort large packages are expected to be up and running prior to December. The new machinery gives the Postal Service the capacity to process an additional 4.5 million packages each day.

Consumers don’t have to leave home to ship their packages. In these socially distant times, they can simply visit usps.com or use the Click-N-Ship feature for help shipping that holiday gift, ordering free Priority Mail boxes, printing shipping labels, purchasing postage and even requesting free next-day Package Pickup. And usps.com is always open.

The Postal Service generally receives no tax dollars for operating expenses and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations.

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