USPS tips for sending holiday packages

The United States Postal Service expects a 12 percent increase in the number of packages that are shipped out this month.

The postmaster of Idaho Falls, Jim Alvord, says when it comes to mailing out your holiday packages preparation is key.

“We got a lot more packages going out so people what they need to do is ship early,” said Alvord.

For international shipping you can go online to www.usps.com/holiday to check and see the last day you can send your package for it to get there on time.

If you have a soldier overseas you plan on sending a package to, you need to get to the post office as soon as possible.

“If it’s going to the Middle East, it should be in the mail today …I understand that by the time you guys are watching this it will be too late, but get them in here as soon as you can so we can try and get them home to our soldiers as soon as we can,”said Alvord.

You also want to make sure your boxes are packed well by using enough padding.

All priority mail automatically comes with $50 of insurance.

Additional insurance is available for an extra cost.

If you want to beat the lines or aren’t able to make it to the post office during regular hours the main Idaho Falls post office has 24-hour self service machines you can mail your packages from.

“If you don’t want to use our flat rate boxes and you don’t have a scale at home you can come here 24 hours a day put it on the scale it will weigh it for you and put in all the measurements and then you can just put the postage on it right then and drop it in our drop slot,” said Alvord.

The postal service has hired seasonal employees to help with the influx of shipping and new Sunday deliveries.

Alvord doesn’t want you to be alarmed if someone who isn’t driving a typical USPS vehicle shows up to your home.

Not all of the seasonal employees will be wearing uniforms but they should be able to provide identification stating they are with the postal service.