Colorado Springs USPS employees work hard amid holiday deadlines

With only five days until Christmas, lines at U.S. Post Office locations in Colorado Springs are long, but employees there are working hard to get all of your packages, big or small, to their destination on time.

With deadlines quickly approaching, you may have to pay a little extra to make sure those gifts make it to the doorstep on time.

The Cheyenne Mountain Post Office is one of the busiest in Colorado Springs.

“I know this station alone this week on Monday and Tuesday was processing about 10,000 packages. It’s staying evenly around 7,000 right now,” said USPS Customer Relations Coordinator Kristina Thomas.

It’s expected that 2.5 billion packages across the U.S. will be shipped this holiday season.

And despite the line, last-minute mailers say it could be worse.

“It was about 10 minutes or so, I think,” said Shea Brooks.

“Fifteen minutes, yeah not too bad,” said Colleen Valliere.

“You know it’s Christmas but actually I expected the line to be a lot worse when I got here so it wasn’t bad,” said Jim Morrow.

These boxes are going all over North America, and to prepare, USPS brings in some extra help.

“We rent additional vehicles throughout the holiday season. We have hired on some additional help to get us through this season to get these packages delivered. We have extra employees working extra hard to get this worked on this week,” Thomas said.

So even if you are a little behind, your gifts are in good hands, and as long as you’re willing to pay a little extra, your gift will be on a doorstep by Christmas Day.

You have until Saturday, Dec. 22, to send your mail using Priority Mail Express. Otherwise, don’t expect it there in time for Christmas.