Those who are not going around to attend Covid-Roulette gatherings for the holidays, are shipping gifts that they otherwise would have delivered in person. Also some are ordering more online rather than go to crowded stores as the pandemic spikes.
On top of higher volume than usual (for many reasons), this:
"Competing crises are slamming the U.S. Postal Service just days before Christmas, imperiling the delivery of millions of packages, as the agency contends with spiking
coronavirus cases in its workforce, unprecedented volumes of e-commerce orders and the continuing fallout from a hobbled cost-cutting program launched by the postmaster general.
Nearly 19,000 of the agency’s 644,000 workers are under quarantine after testing positive for the virus or after a close exposure, according to the American Postal Workers Union. Meanwhile, packages have stacked up inside some postal facilities, leading employees to push them aside to create narrow walkways on shop floors.
Some processing plants are now refusing to accept new mail shipments. The backlogs are so pronounced that some managers have reached out to colleagues in hopes of diverting mail shipments to nearby facilities. But often, those places are full, too. Meanwhile, packages sit on trucks for days waiting for floor space to open so the loads can be sorted."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/12/21/usps-delays-christmas/
I've managed to only have one present that I ordered online, that may not get here in time (via Amazon, likely by their own courier, not USPS). If not, then I'll print out an image of the book I got for them "coming soon". At least it's for an adult, who will understand. I would never have risked late delivery for a child's present.
