USPS carriers stay busy delivering packages before Christmas

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (WDEF) – After 20 years working with the U.S. Postal Service, Brian Simms knows all the Christmas tricks.

“Had a customer, a young kid, a young boy, who always greeted me at the door…Well I had a parcel that showed what it was, it was a toy…I went and knocked on the door and I got the father to come out, got him out to the truck and we snuck it into the garage. So, you’ve kind of gotta sometimes think about what you’re doing so you don’t spoil somebody’s Christmas,” Simms said.

It’s peak season for the Postal Service.

And for Simms, that means delivering extra parcels during his 800-plus homes route.

“For the last two weeks when I leave the post office, I have parcels from top to bottom, side-to-side. There’s no room to breathe back there,” he said.

The Postal Service expects to have delivered more than 900 million packages between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day.

This year, not only has Simms noticed the number of package deliveries started to increase earlier, but he said the number of deliveries has also increased.

“Apparently the economy is doing really well this year because a lot of people are ordering a lot of stuff,” Simms said.

Because of the uptick in mail, employees often work extra hours and long days.

Simms said he volunteered to work extra.

The next day off he has will be Christmas Day.

“Customers now are so hooked into technology that they know when their parcel is going to be there. They get alerts on their phone. They use the USPS App and so they know when to expect and so when you come up to the door, some of them are already there waiting on it and you can tell they’re excited. Not necessarily that I’m there, but that their parcel is there, and so that’s nice. It’s like we’re little Santa’s elves running around delivering parcels,” Simms said.