Thanks in part to so many Iowans buying things online on Cyber Monday that’ll be shipped to their homes, the U.S. Postal Service is projecting a 20-percent increase in package mail volume for the final weeks of the year.
Richard Watkins, the Iowa spokesman for the Postal Service, says that’s a welcome boost in business.
“Three-hundred-65-million packages is about 65-million more packages than we did just last year,” Watkins says.
“Certainly that’s good news for the Postal Service, but it won’t make up for the significant decline in First Class mail volume but we do expect a huge surge in holiday package volume this year.”
December 17th is expected to be the Postal Service’s busiest mail sorting day of the year as it’s the final Monday before Christmas week. Watkins says many thousands of Iowans are still exchanging holiday greeting cards.
“Christmas mail volumes, First Class mail volumes have been down somewhat over the past several years but people still enjoy the tradition of getting those holiday greeting cards,” Watkins says. “You really can’t place an email greeting on the refrigerator or on the mantel so we do have tradition going for us.”
For Iowans who have a loved one serving in uniform overseas, Watkins says there are several upcoming deadlines for shipping care packages to members of the military. “Go to USPS.com to find out what those mailing deadlines are for our APO and FPO service members serving overseas,” Watkins says.
“We’ve also got some great information about shipping both to overseas family and service members and also some tips on how best to package your items to make sure they get to where they’re going.” Nationwide, nearly 18-billion cards, letters and packages will be delivered between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Eve.