Inside the Busiest Shipping Day of the Year

COLUMBIA, SC (WOLO)– Christmas is less than a week away, and Monday, December 19, is considered the busiest day of shipping in the United States.

It’s the most wonderful and busiest time of year at the United States Postal Service distribution plant in West Columbia.

Employees are working vigorously to push out gifts on time. The US Postal Service brought in hundreds of seasonal works to help get the job done.

“We beefed up our staffing today to cover the extra volume that’s coming in,” US Postal Service Senior Manager of Distribution Operations, Mike Daniels said. “Our job is to get it done, get it out and get it home.”

Every Monday is typically busy for these employees, but the Monday before Christmas gets pretty hectic.

“Our projection is to do 2 million,” Daniels said. “That’s what we did last year.”

“This is what we do every year ,” US Postal Service mail carrier, William Turman said. “It just gets a little heavier during Christmas but we do this all the time so we’re prepared for it.”

After you drop off your package or make a purchase online, it’s brought to the US Postal Distribution Processing Plant in West Columbia.

“We sort and dispatch it out to other facilities,” Daniels said.

On top of sending out millions of cards and packages, the plant also sorts out thousands of envelopes that were canceled.

“We run them through the machines, and it actually cancels the mail and puts a date on it,” Daniels said. “It’s also for revenue protection because someone can peal this stamp off and try to reuse it.”

UPS expects to process 611 million pieces of mail Monday, which is why employees want Christmas shoppers start early.

“Start shopping a little earlier next year,” Turman said. “We’re going to get it all out either way.”

The US Postal Service predicts that Thursday will be the busiest day for deliveries, with 30 million packages delivered on the peak of day alone!.