SALT LAKE CITY — Next week is expected to be the busiest mailing week for the United States Postal Service.
On Friday, FOX13 News got a behind-the-scenes tour at the USPS Salt Lake Priority Mail Center.
Julie Day is one of the postal workers behind the organized chaos.
“It’s fun to get the packages out to people,” Day said.
Next week, it’s about to go from busy to a full-on hustle.
“It’s just constant,” Day said. “It gets really overwhelming to see all the packages. It’s a lot of work.”
“Next week it’s going to be crazy,” distribution operations manager Shaun Steck said.
With Wednesday marking the deadline for guaranteed Christmas delivery, the staff’s highest priority is getting the packages to their destinations on time.
“Been here since 6:30 in the morning. We have folks that are working up to 12 hours a day, seven days a week,” Steck said.
The center doubled its workforce in the last few years to more than 400 people working around the clock.
They have so much work, they’ve called in eight robotic reinforcements.
The robots help this facility become one of the most efficient in the country, something managers say the average Utahn doesn’t realize.
“I think they don’t understand what we do on a daily basis, how many packages we move into the building and out of the building. Whether it is a truck or a train or move it across the country,” Steck said.
Chances are, any packages you send or receive in the state come through the facility. They expect to handle a half-million packages per day next week.
Key holiday deadlines:
- First-class mail, such as greeting cards and letters, need to be in the mail by next Friday
- Priority mail must be in by next Saturday
