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Peak processing

Plants moving holiday packages, other mail

Mail handlers process packages
Mail handlers LaSha Mack and LaRorn Williams sort oversized boxes at the Michigan Metroplex. Photo: MLive Detroit

Postal Service plants are busy processing packages and other mail as the holiday season kicks into overdrive.

For example, the Michigan Metroplex expects to handle 62 million mailpieces in December, while the Morgan P&DC in New York City processed millions of pieces Dec. 14 alone.

Many facilities are experiencing big increases in package volumes. The Charleston, WV, P&DC predicts parcel volumes will rise as much as 26 percent, while the Chattanooga, TN, P&DC anticipates an increase of 15 percent.

USPS estimates it will deliver 15.5 billion mailpieces overall between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Eve. This number includes 600 million packages, a double-digit increase from last year’s record-setting performance.

The Postal Service prepared for peak season by investing in new equipment, including 21 Small Parcel Sorting System machines at facilities across the nation.

USPS also completed deployment of new Mobile Delivery Devices and cargo vans in time for peak season, and the organization hired more than 30,000 seasonal workers.

Employees say they are enthusiastic about the holidays.

“I like that it’s fast-paced,” Esmeralda Alvarez, a mail handler at the Omaha, NE, P&DC, told the Omaha World-Herald. “I don’t like jobs that are really slow. … It’s never dull.”

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