Busiest Days of Year for Postal Carriers - KGWN –Cheyenne, WY– Scottsbluff, NE News,Weather, Sports

Busiest Days of Year for Postal Carriers

More financial woes for the U.S. Postal Service means cuts here in Wyoming.

80 post offices across the state will be reducing their hours by the end of next year, but they haven't decided which ones will see those cuts.

This is the busiest time of the year for postal workers and while Santa and his elves are the hardest workers in the days leading up to Christmas, coming in a close second is probably United States postal carriers.

Andy Flores has been delivering mail for 26 years. His route takes him about five and a half hours to complete, but the week before Christmas it can be twice as long.

"It'll be like 8 to 5:30, 8 to 6:30, maybe 8 o'clock at night, tonight whenever I get done," Flores said.

A truck that normally has plenty of room to spare now has packages stacked halfway to the roof.

"Normal day I probably average 40 packages, Christmas time I can average 80 to 100," Flores said.

Cheyenne has approximately 50 postal routes and according to the United States Postal Service, December 19 and 20 are their busiest days of the year. The days are long, but for a veteran carrier like Flores, he says it's his favorite time of year.

"Knowing that they got them on time. That when they open up Christmas morning they'll have their packages there. That's kind of a neat feeling and then seeing the reactions you get from people who get them," Flores said.

To make sure your packages reach their destination by Christmas, the postal service says December 21 is the deadline for Priority Mail and December 22 for Express Mail.