This year the United States Post Office (USPS) expects to deliver nearly 15 billion pieces of mail and more than 900 million packages between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day. 

 

A large portion of this enormous volume is due to the USPS’s contract with Amazon to deliver their packages seven days a week, which began in portions of the country in 2013 and in Minnesota in 2015. 

 

The Becker and Clearwater post offices are seeing their own huge delivery increases, leading to 12-hour days for many employees.

 

On an average day, the Becker Post Office sees 600 to 700 packages. This past Monday they had over 2,000. The Clearwater Post Office, which also services Clear Lake, delivers around 300 packages on an average day; Monday they had 1,877. 

 

“We’re averaging around 1,200 packages a day,” said Clearwater Postmaster Nicole Cromwell.

 

Although Mondays are always the busiest days of the week, they still haven’t hit their peak. This Monday, Dec. 17, is forecast to be the busiest Monday of the year for the USPS.

 

Before the Amazon partnership, post offices would traditionally see a jump in customers bringing packages in to ship; this year that hasn’t happened.

 

“I don’t see it coming over the counter as much, although maybe it hasn’t hit yet,” said Becker Postmaster Michelle Mattsen. “People may be shipping the items they order directly to the person they’re intended for.”

 

The volume of regular letter mail delivery usually goes down in December, but some of the local coverage areas haven’t slowed down at all. For efficiency, carriers have been delivering both mail and packages in rural areas, but only mail in town, leaving package delivery to the subs (substitute drivers).

 

“Delivering right to the door takes a lot longer, especially in the country,” said Mattsen. “In town, it can be really fast.”

 

Becker USPS subs have been putting in a lot of overtime, including Sundays, in order to keep up with just the packages. Becker has two to three subs out each day, Clearwater has two.

 

“They’re running 12-hour days to ensure our customers’ packages arrive daily,” said Mattsen.

 

Small post office branches like Becker and Clearwater aren’t given extra staff during the holiday season.

 

Clearwater’s subs are also working a lot of overtime with 12-hour days, including Sundays.

 

“Our branch doesn’t normally deliver on Sundays,” said Cromwell. “But we need to with the volume this time of year.”

 

The week of Dec. 17 through Dec. 23 is expected to be the busiest of the season, so deliveries won’t be slowing down for a while.

 

“Before Amazon you’d see it slow down two or three days before Christmas,” said Mattsen. “That doesn’t happen anymore, it’s right up to the last day. Amazon has Prime set up so it can go right up to Christmas, so we’ll be delivering on Christmas Eve up to 7-8 at night.”

 

Amazon isn’t the only retailer keeping the USPS working overtime. She has also seen a big increase in packages coming from Target. 

 

Although customer service is their top priority, when people call looking for a package Mattsen says they try to find it, but often can’t say when it will arrive because there’s so much coming in and out this time of year.

 

“The subs are starting at 6 a.m. and working 12-hour days,” she said. “So, you can expect your packages anytime from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.”

 

Becker USPS delivers to homes and businesses along six routes, Clearwater delivers to seven, three in Clearwater and four in Clear Lake.

 

“What really amazes me is that at the start of the day there’s so many packages and at the end of the day they’re all gone,” said Mattsen. “Our people are organizing all this and they’re getting it out to the customer.”