Christmas deadline
Time is growing short to ship hoiday gifts
By Bobbi Mlynar
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Not even the U.S. Postal Service can hold back Christmas.
Emporia Postmaster Roger Clark said earlier this week that time is getting short for mailing some types of packages in time for delivery by Dec. 25.
While a few post offices in large metropolitan areas deliver packages on Christmas Day, the overwhelming majority of offices — Emporia included — do not.
“From now until the middle of next week, or even until the end of next week, Priority is going to be the mode of transportation to get it there,” Clark said.
After that, shippers who want to ensure that packages are under out-of-town trees by Dec. 25 will need to rise to the next level of shipment and cost.
“They need to be looking at doing the Express Mail to guarantee it to get there by Christmas,” Clark said. “Of course, old Mother Nature may have a say in all that.”
The deadline for international priority shipping has passed, and the possibility of getting boxes delivered to the military APO addresses is slipping away quickly.
People who want to expedite their packages may want to pick up a flat-rate box at no charge at the post office. For $8.95, the boxes can be packed with “as much as you can get into them” and shipped internationally, to APO numbers, as well.
Clark said that people who prefer to make shipping arrangements or purchase postage stamps from the convenience of their own homes can “click and ship” from the postal service Web site, www.usps.com.
The site accepts credit card numbers, prints out a label and gives delivery confirmation.
“You can ask us to pick up the package,” Clark said. “You don’t even have to come to the post office. You get free delivery confirmation with that. ... The only thing is if it’s going to an APO number, you’re going to have to use the customs forms.”
Customers may find that bringing APO packages to the post office may be a better option.
Stamps also may be ordered by telephone or from the postal carrier for at-home payment and delivery.
“Also, they can buy stamps at the grocery stores here in town,” Clark said, adding that Wal-Mart and Staples sell stamps, too.
In addition to the convenience, on-line service can eliminate the need to stand in long lines at the post office. The line at the counter windows late Monday afternoon was backed up through the lobby and out to the front door.
“We’ve got four people running the window,” Clark said during the rush that afternoon. Another clerk was shuttling boxes from the window to the back. Clark said he expected the situation to worsen next week.
“Next Monday will be the largest mailing date before Christmas,” he said.
To hasten the process, Clark asked that shippers have everything packaged properly when they come.
“If they want to insure it, make sure they have it packaged properly and have all the forms filled out, if they can, before they get to the window,” he said.
UPS also expects Monday to be the busiest day of the holiday shipping season.
Tomorrow is the last day to ship by standard UPS ground mode and expect it to be delivered by Christmas to the outer zones of the United States, such as California and New England, UPS store owner Tracy Wells said. Air and one-day or second-day shipments, however, remain viable alternatives for holiday shipping.
“As of today, though, they don’t have any guarantees on ground shipment,” Wells said earlier this week.
If a shipment should normally take two days in transit, chances are it now may take three or four.
“People want to make sure they allow themselves a day or two extra,” she said.
Wells estimated that Friday, Dec. 21, would be the last day that Kansans could expect to ship a package that likely would be delivered in-state — or in some border areas of Oklahoma, Nebraska and Missouri — before Christmas Day.
“Colorado’s automatically two days,” she added.
Arrangements for labels and UPS shipping also can be done through the company’s Web site, www.ups.com.
More information may be had by calling 343-8771.