The post office has 3.7 billion Christmas stamps, an extra million square feet of space and 116 rented planes and is hiring thousands of temporary workers: So bring on the holidays.
Opening a 24-hour-a-day command center Thursday to oversee movement of the massive holiday mail volume, Postmaster General Marvin Runyon declared his agency "readier than ever" for the seasonal flood."When all is said and done, we expect the final tally on holiday cards, letters and parcels to come to 4.5 billion, an increase of 100 million pieces over the record holiday volume of 1994," Runyon said.
To cope, the Postal Service is leasing 116 airplanes, renting an extra million square feet of floor space in 17 cities and hiring 35,000 to 40,000 temporary workers, Runyon said.
It has printed 3.7 billion Christmas stamps, including 2.3 billion of the increasingly popular self-stick variety.
Dec. 18 is expected to be the busiest day of the year for the post office, and some large offices will remain open Christmas Eve, even though it's a Sunday, Runyon said.
The high-tech operations center was first used last Christmas season and has been credited with helping speed and smooth the flow of mail.
"When bad weather forces airports to close or cancel flights, we work from here to reroute the mail and keep it moving," Runyon explained.
With 22 million people expected to visit post offices in the next few weeks, Runyon said office hours are being extended at 4,500 locations. At 1,600 post offices, lobby directors will help direct people to services and keep the lines moving.