ROANOKE, Va. – The U.S. Postal Service is primarily in charge of delivering packages before Santa’s sleigh takes off Christmas Eve, and the Roanoke Main Post Office has a lot of packages to sort through in the week leading up to Christmas.
“We handle 90,000 to 95,000 parcels a day here,” said Jason Diggs, a U.S. Postal Service administrator partially based out of Roanoke’s Main Post Office. “That can be overwhelming sometimes, so we want to make sure we’re on our A-game during this time of the year.”
Roanoke’s Post Office uses both manual labor and automated machines to sort through mail, but time is running out if you want that mail at your destination by Christmas. The Postal Service said the deadline is Friday for first-class mail, Saturday for Priority Mail packages, and Monday for Priority Mail Express Packages.
“It’s critical that they get those packages in here as soon as possible,” Diggs said. “Dolly trucks are moving, and people are scurrying about making sure mail is getting to the right area.”
Nationwide, the Postal Service expects to deliver 2.5 billion pieces of mail in the week leading up to Christmas.