Local post offices busier than ever during holiday season

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- With the holidays fast approaching, Central Valley post office distribution centers are experiencing a Christmas crunch.

"I wear many hats and we are busy," said facility manager Sonia Laney.

The post office calls it the busiest week of the year. More than 131,000 pieces of mail are processed here daily during the month of December.

"I'm going to run my operation almost 24 hours, so we're getting it all out and hopefully get every piece of package delivered before Christmas," Laney said.

Carrier Ming Vue says the amount of mail he sees the week before Christmas typically doubles in anticipate of the holiday.

His day starts by sorting hundreds of packages and letters before it gets loaded up and ready for delivery

"It took me about six months to get the hang of it," Vue said.

You can say Vue has been around the block -- hand delivering mail in this neighborhood near Hoover High for the past eight years.

"Pretty simple, just got to make sure the mail goes to the correct address," he said. "The hard part is the walking because it's walking all day."

Vue claims he gets in about 22,000 steps a day on his mail route, while exchanging pleasantries with his customers.

To be ready for a week like this, Vue says the postal service prepares all year for it.

"The pressure is very high," he said. "We don't want any mail to be late, any packages to be late. On time all the time."

If you want your packages to arrive by December 25, the 18th is the deadline for first class mail service, including greeting cards.

The latest deadline is December 23 for the priority mail express service.