Holiday crunch begins for delivery services across the region

CHERRY HILL, N.J. (WPVI) -- Shoppers everywhere put their credit cards to work after scouting out those Cyber Monday deals.

Now delivery drivers are gearing up to get all those packages to their doors in time for the holidays.

The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) expects to deliver more than 15 billion pieces of mail this holiday season.

That includes 850 million packages, a 10 percent increase over 2016.

The postal service has expanded its Sunday delivery service to keep up with the crush.

Mail carriers will also make Christmas Day package deliveries in select locations.

Postal officials said because of the explosion in online shopping, there is no longer a "busiest day" for holiday shipping.

Instead, the Postal Service's busiest time is now two weeks before Christmas. Starting the week of Dec. 11, customer traffic is expected to increase, with the week of Dec. 18 - 24 predicted to be the busiest mailing, shipping, and delivery week.

During that week alone, an estimated 3 billion pieces of First Class Mail, including greeting cards, will be processed and delivered.

The Postal Service also expects to deliver nearly 200 million packages per week during those two weeks.

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