The Postal Service plans to deliver almost 15 billion pieces of mail and 900 million packages this holiday season.
The estimates, released Nov. 13, cover the period from Thanksgiving to New Year’s Day.
“The Postal Service is ready to deliver for the holiday season. We have increased our operating capacity to include additional transportation and extended our delivery windows,” said Postmaster General Megan J. Brennan. “Our dedicated employees are proud to deliver more packages to homes than any other shipper.”
USPS expects to deliver almost 200 million packages per week during the two-week period that begins Dec. 10. The organization predicts the week of Dec. 17-23 will be the busiest mailing, shipping and delivery week, when employees are expected to process almost 3 billion pieces of mail, including greeting cards.
Beginning Nov. 25, the Postal Service will expand its Sunday delivery operations to locations with high package volumes. The organization expects to deliver more than 8 million packages each Sunday in December.
USPS will also deliver packages Christmas Day in select locations.
Additionally, the Postal Service expects to process more than 16 million pounds of mail for overseas Department of Defense and Department of State recipients. Both agencies measure their mail volume in pounds, not pieces.
USPS is encouraging customers to use usps.com throughout the holiday season. The Postal Service expects the busiest day online will be Dec. 17, when the site will receive 8 million customers, including 400,000 Click-N-Ship users.
Almost 105 million customers are expected to use the site between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day.
The Postal Service is also reminding customers to sign up for Informed Delivery, a free feature that allows consumers to view incoming mail, track packages and reschedule deliveries.