The lines at the main post office in Reno were shorter today than they were over the weekend, but they were constant. And it's crowds like that that have made this a record-breaking year for the U.S. Postal Service. In fact, nationally the postal service has processed a half billion packages this season. Nationally they've seen a 15-20% increase in business. And in Reno, our increase in business is double that.
"In Reno we're looking at 40% more business than what we're used to seeing," said Karren Little, Window Supervisor at Reno's main post office on Vassar.
She says improvements in processing here at the main station in Reno this year helped too. So did window service and carriers working on Sundays. And keeping up on the daily amount of mail.
"The number of hampers changed out and clearing out those big blue boxes out front 4 and 5 times more often every day helps," Little says.
And more people are packing and mailing things themselves through the lobby kiosks and packing boxes and arranging for a carrier to pick them up through usps.com.
Carriers are seeing a lot of mail this year so they've changed their schedules to allow more returns to the station.
"It does seem like there's no end to it," said Carl Shaw who was delivering on Roberts Street in Reno today. "But it's a good thing for the economy. We had more mail last year than the year before that...and even more this year."
And get this - if you send it Express mail you can still have things delivered by Christmas. In fact, that guarantee holds for anything mailed by Tuesday evening.Â
