BOISE, Idaho — People are rushing to their local post office in an effort to get last-minute gifts to their destinations before Christmas day.
USPS, UPS, and FedEx are in the middle of their busiest week of the year, and the COVID-19 pandemic has only increased shipping demands.
Most people have had to plan ahead and ship early to ensure their gifts make it on time.
If you still haven't shipped your Christmas gifts, you're not completely out of luck. While some deadlines have passed, you can still get those gifts delivered by Christmas.
For the US Postal Service, the deadline has already passed for ground shipping. In order to ensure a package is delivered by Dec. 25, it would have had to ship by Tuesday, Dec. 15. However, you still have time if sending your items by first-class shipping. That deadline is Dec. 18. Priority and priority express items will need to be sent by Dec. 23.
The deadline has also passed for UPS ground. For three day shipping, items can wait to be sent up until Dec. 23rd.
FedEx also requires expedited shipping for pre-Christmas day delivery. Two-day shipping needs to be sent by Dec. 22, and overnight shipping can be sent no later than Dec. 23.
FedEx sent a statement to KTVB that said in part:
"Online shopping and shipping volumes this holiday season are expected to break records. The exponential growth of e-commerce, underscored by the covid-19 pandemic, will continue during the 2020 holiday season, with more packages hitting our network than ever before”.
FedEx is expecting peak shipping volumes to be up 22%, year-over-year. More than 600,000 workers have been preparing for months in advance of an unprecedented holiday season.