It’s peak season once again, and the Postal Service is ready to deliver. In this episode, we explore how USPS prepares for the largest annual surge in mail and packages. Postal executives Isaac Cronkhite, Chief Processing and Distribution Officer, and Elvin Mercado, Chief Retail and Delivery Officer, break down the Postal Service’s year-round preparation for peak season and the major upgrades rolling out nationwide. Whether you’re sending gifts or simply interested in what it takes to move billions of pieces of mail in just a few weeks, this episode offers a look at the Postal Service’s most exciting season.
In this episode, host Jeff Marino is joined by guests Elvin Mercado and Isaac Cronkhite to discuss how the Postal Service is prepared to deliver during its busiest time of year. Tune in for a deep dive into the planning, technology, staffing, and modernization efforts that will shape this year’s peak season. Hear how automated package processing systems and expanded equipment capacity are driving efficiency while improvements on the retail and delivery side improve customer experience. From major automation upgrades to revamped retail locations, find out what it takes to deliver holiday cheer to millions.
Jeff :
Hello and welcome to Mailin’ It! the official podcast of the United States Postal Service. I'm the host Jeff Marino. It's that holiday time of year again, putting up the lights and decorating, shopping for gifts, and for us at the postal service, getting ready to deliver those gifts along with billions of extra letters and packages. Yes, it's peak delivery season again, and we're ready to help Americans send and receive the holiday cheer on time. Over the past year, we've made some big improvements in our logistics network and retail storefronts, and now it's “go time.” So for this episode, I have two guests who've had a big hand in driving these improvements: Isaac Cronkhite and Elvin Mercado. Isaac is the Postal Service’s Chief Processing and Distribution Officer, and Elvin is our Chief Retail and Delivery Officer. Gentlemen, welcome to Mailin' It!
Isaac:
Thank you. Great to be here.
Elvin:
Thank you for having us.
Jeff :
Actually, Isaac, you've been on the podcast before for our holiday shipping season a few years ago, so welcome back.
Isaac:
Well, thank you. Great to be here. We've made a lot of improvements since then. So excited to share what we've been doing.
Jeff :
So just in case our listeners aren't familiar with the magnitude of peak season planning, so Isaac, can you, I know you're big into data, so can you give us some numbers about what the volume is gonna be during this peak season?
Isaac:
So the biggest surge is the package volume. So last peak we processed 658 million packages during our peak season. This year we're planning on 759 million packages, so an increase of a hundred million packages, and that's roughly 40% higher than it is during the rest of the year. So big surge in packages.
Jeff :
So this is some big numbers on the processing side of it. Elvin, can you give us an idea of what that means for retail and delivery?
Elvin:
So like, as I mentioned, we're gonna see a significant increase in packaged volume, about 30-40% in increase from FY 25. But just to put some things in perspective, last year we delivered about 1.2 billion packages and over 27 million packages were delivered between six and nine. Giving the customers that early delivery. Now keep in mind that doesn't include any holiday cards. Any letters are flat. So that's just basically packages. We're also ramping up our staffing bringing on some holiday City carries, about 1200 of those, and about 5,000 holiday clerks. So just keep our staffing stable going through the holidays. We also plan to extend our retail and pick up hours at some of our offices around the country. So we're more than prepared for the holiday surge and our employees are more than prepared to help our customers.
Jeff :
So those are some big numbers. I mean billions and billions and billions. So how far in advance do you actually start getting ready for peak season?
Elvin:
We start January 1st. Basically the minute our peak season's over. We start planning. We start looking at what happened last year. What can we have done better for our customers. And then as we ramp into peak season, once Thanksgiving hits, the week of Thanksgiving, it's all hands-on deck for the entire organization.
Jeff :
Is that the same in the processing side?
Isaac:
Well, we've been on a journey to improve our overall network over the past five years, and that work continues week in, week out, and all of it is amplified and geared towards achieving peak expecting volume to grow. So yeah, it starts January 1st. We do a hot wash on what went right, what went wrong, what adjustments do we need to make. But we have a year round equipment deployment approach as well as our employee complement approach. All of it's geared towards being ready for the next peak.
Jeff :
So let's dig into that a little bit then. What are some adjustments that you've made this year?
Isaac:
We used to, for peak in the plants, hire approximately 40,000 employees to manually sort packages. We don't do that anymore. What we do now is we utilize the equipment that we're deploying to its max. So during the normal course of a week in the middle of the year, we might run 60-70% capacity on our equipment. During peak, we're running at a hundred percent. And this year, based on all of the equipment that we've been deploying, we have 67 additional pieces of package processing equipment to use. We expect to be able to process if we needed to, upwards of 62 million packages on any given day. So it's all about increasing our capability to process packages on machines instead of doing it manually. So this year we've already hired about 8,500 employees.
Jeff :
Sure. And I remember in the past we used to actually rent additional space to do some of that sorting for all of these people to work. What's it like this year?
Isaac:
Yeah, we used to hire dozens and dozens of peak annexes because you need space to do the package sortation. This year I think we had four annexes that we needed to get for peak, specifically for peak. So a lot less. Again, it's all about using the equipment that we have year round to its max.
Jeff :
So now you're more efficient with space. Is that because of the new technology you've got to be able to, to process better?
Isaac:
Well, a couple things. So we are able to sort around somewhere between 40 and 70 packages manually per work hour. On machines, we can do over 300 packages per work hour, per man hour. So automatically you have a big bump in efficiency just by putting it on machines. And then of course if we have excess space and annex, we have to move the product in and out. So, it's a lot more trucks, a lot more cost to fulfill the same mission. So getting volume on machines is the way to go to be efficient and provide the best possible service to our customers.
Jeff :
And you've got a couple of new machines. There's seven or eight of these matrix sorters. Tell me about those.
Isaac:
Yeah, so our typical best machine was able to process around 10,000 packages per hour. These new matrix sorters are essentially six or seven or eight machines in parallel that are capable of sorting 60,000 packages per hour. It's a huge upgrade. So we have whole buildings that essentially have one giant machine instead of maybe six or seven independent machines. So big boost in productivity and those are capable of doing close to 500 packages per work hour.
Jeff :
You've both talked about hiring for this season and how much less it's been in years past. Why is it less?
Elvin:
We're much better staffed going into the peak season. We've been working collectively with the retail and delivery team to make sure we have our current staffing up to the standard that we have going into peak. We also deployed, on the retail side, we've deployed a lot of machines, about 450 machines nationally that are going to help us where you need less employees to process the huge volume that we're going to get from Isaac's team. So that helps us tremendously, staffing correctly going into peak and then the automation that we have in the field is gonna help us tremendously from an employee standpoint.
Jeff :
And I understand that a lot of these seasonal employees you're hiring, the plan is to move them toward career. Is that right?
Isaac:
Yes absolutely. In the past we would hire 40,000 peak season employees and let most of them go at the end of peak, which is a little bit, a little bit of a challenge to hire people for such a short period of time. It cost money and it's not necessarily the best employee experience. Now, people can come knowing that they can, it's more than a job. It's more than a peak season gig. It's a potential long-term career that can be beneficial to them and to us. It positions a Postal Service in the marketplace for employees very well.
Jeff :
So it's kind of a differentiator for us compared to some of our competitors.
Isaac:
Correct. And then the training and the expense to onboard an employee isn't just for four weeks, five weeks. It's for 40 years. And that's a huge benefit. We don't have to go through that learning curve every peak and it's a valuable investment for the employees because we're gonna keep them on board and use them as part of our year-round complement strategy.
Jeff :
So Isaac's talked about some of the new machines and the processing and stuff that's on there. Is there anything new in the retail and delivery side that you can talk about?
Elvin:
Absolutely. I mean, on the retail side, all year long we've been, we focus on making sure that we have an acceptable environment for our customers, making sure they're clean. Our associates are trained properly to interact with our customers. We have about 2,100 self-service kiosks nationally where we've been making sure that our customers are aware of them, that they use them, just that ease of use and using the automation that we have on the retail side. And then working with the engineering team, we've deployed about 2,000 rapid drop-off kiosks around the country. Again, something that customers can go in, drop off their prepaid packages, and then they don't have to go to a line, we pick them up and then dispatch them to the mail processing plant. So those are just a couple of the things that we have for our retail locations to assist our customers with their mailing needs.
Jeff:
One of the things that happens you hear a lot about this time of year is the wait time in line. So how can the self-service kiosk help a customer there? Can we talk about some of the capabilities that it has so that people don't have to wait in line?
Elvin:
So the self-service kiosks do 95% of the transactions you would do at an all-purpose window. So you can do prepaid, you can do certified, you can mail a package, you can Ground Advantage, Priority Mail, everything that you would normally do, go buy stamps. We have them equipped with holiday stamps. So they want to get specialized holiday stamps, they'll be at the kiosk. So they do everything that you would normally do at our windows you would do at a self-service kiosk. So if there's one available near you and we advertise them on our website, you can go on our website. You see where they're strategically located around the country. You can go to those sites, and they're our automated teller we call them, has all the functionalities that you would have on our windows.
Jeff:
Let me follow up on that. The changes that you made to the retail locations, was that based all on just customer feedback or was there something else involved?
Elvin:
The majority is customer feedback. We have an internal measurement that we track daily and weekly, and we're listening to the customer and some of the changes they've been asking for, the customer voice that they've been looking for. So obviously we wanna make sure that they have a pleasant experience. We wanna make sure the lobbies are clean, we wanna make sure that they don't wait online. We want them to be repeat customers. Because Peak season is the first time that many customers walk into our lobbies because of the need. So we want them to come back, and we use those analytics for the last 10 to 11 months. We just look at them every single day and then we make those adjustments. This year we made a change to the way we manage our lobbies with personnel. We work with the entire headquarters team of vice presidents and we're deploying, we actually have a peak calendar for our lobbies. We're deploying headquarters employees all over the country to our lobbies to assist customers at the SSKs, at the rapid drop off stations. All of the different technology as well as any questions they may have for their mailing needs. So, much different approach this year to helping our customers because we heard their voice.
Jeff :
So there's a couple other new things that are out this year. The new redesign modernized retail locations. I know there's a few of 'em out there right now. And this peak season is kind of their debut, right?
Elvin:
Except for one of the 13 that we've completed. Yeah, this will be their first time, brand new modernized facilities. We have another 25 coming up in calendar year ‘26. But extremely excited with those facilities. We've got amazing feedback from our customers on the ones that we've already modernized. But you have, it's a customer-centric post office. Basically, again, listening to the customer, what they needed, digital menu boards, fresh new, look smart lockers are all deployed in there. We have all the SSK technology, 24 hour access for our customers since we've opened up the 13. The customers and the employees are ecstatic, simply amazing. And we're looking forward to the additional ones going on in ‘26.
Jeff :
So making things more efficient is actually a great transition because things were, things are also far more efficient on the processing side, right, Isaac? So, can you talk about some of the things that you've done to improve efficiency this year?
Isaac:
So every single year we progress down this path to redesign our network. And it's that much more efficient and also stable because we went through a lot of changes over the past years that we're somewhat disruptive locally as we were solving big problems. And of course when we're deploying a new facility, we can't stop delivering or processing the mail. Everything has to keep moving. So we have gotten through a lot of the challenges of those big disruptive but necessary changes. And going into this peak, we're far more stable, services are better, efficiencies are better, lower overall cost. And I'm so excited to see all of that hard work in position to really be a big payoff this peak.
Jeff :
So Elvin, you, we've talked so much about the retail centers, but you've got a whole other side of it, the actual delivery side of operations. So these improvements that Isaac's made in the processing, how does that trickle down to the delivery side of things?
Elvin:
So, I mean, it's just the work that we've been doing together over the last several months to get ready for peak. And those enhancements that Isaac mentioned are, are gonna pay off dividends for us on the delivery side. Some of the things that we worked on, we have a process. Isaac and I identified having afternoon drops. His network volume you see is gonna be up 30, 40%. So I'm trying to get as much volume as I can into my facilities so I can get that volume ready for our letter carriers, either that afternoon or earlier that morning so we can get out to our customers. So huge for us. And working together. We also work closely with our DDU drop customers. We work with them early on, making sure that they're aligned with the right projections, giving us the volume, and making sure that we have that in place.
Elvin:
The process that the capability that Isaac has now, to give us volume much earlier in the day is going to pay dividends when we look at efficiency. Because now I can staff properly and make sure that I have the staffing aligned with the volume that comes in. And then that should pay off by me getting the carriers back a lot earlier and tendering and giving Isaac volume much earlier in the day so he can start processing his machines and continuing that, you know, very important cycle that we need to be successful on the delivery side.
Jeff :
So let's talk about the carriers. Are there some of the improvements that have been given to the carriers when they're out in the neighborhoods? What have we done to make their, their jobs, because we talked about the amount of volume that's coming down, you know, from the processing centers into the delivery units, getting them into the trucks, getting into people's homes. Are there improvements that the carriers are seeing?
Elvin:
You see the carriers have the technology they need to have. The scanners help them identify packages along their route. We have the carrier pickup program where we can pick up packages and get them back earlier into the facilities. The new vehicles that we're deploying are going to be helpful for the carriers. We're not, we don't have them everywhere, but in the locations that we have them, the carriers love them and they've been moving those along. I mean, getting the mail earlier from Isaac, making sure that we connect it to a scanner, and having that visibility, helps the letter carriers tremendously. Also helps us from a customer standpoint, because now the customer, once we scan that package, just has that visibility right away and we can track it, we can track it for them. So we have some great advantages out there in the field on the delivery side. We're prepared on the delivery side.
Elvin:
We're prepared for the volume that Isaac is ready to give us, but I want our customers to understand that our retail lobbies will be busy and we're going to staff them up to make sure that they get through them as, get through the service as quickly as possible and to be patient to a certain extent. Because It could be pretty busy for us. But to Isaac's point, get in there as early as you can. Give us the volume as early as you can, the earlier the better. And our employees are more than ready to service our customers, not only on the retail side, but also on the delivery side. And we're excited about this peak season. I mean, we've had some issues over the last couple of years, but I think this peak season more than ever, we're more prepared and the collaboration that we've had over the last several months will show this peak season going forward.
Jeff :
Okay. I'm gonna throw a curve ball at you here, Isaac. All of this sounds great. You've got the transportation, you've got the processing, you've got the people in place, but it's winter. Stuff happens. How are you guys set up to handle things that we can't control?
Isaac:
Well, the one thing that I ask the weather gods is please make it snow where it's supposed to snow. Where they are used to weather, where the infrastructure is available. It's a non-event, you know, weather happens, snow happens, you know, all of that good stuff. And you know, the trucks keep moving, plants keep processing. It becomes a challenge where it happens where it's not supposed to snow or it's not supposed to be ice. Actually, ice anywhere is a bad thing, you know, for safety and for movement of product from plant to plant. So it's not within our control. What we can control is how we react to those situations. And that is a strength of the Postal Service. We respond to uncertain challenges every single day. And I believe we're more and more capable to appropriately respond to those. So we have a one day event and limit it to a one day event, not allow it to turn into a multi-day, week-long event.
Isaac:
One of the challenges during peak is the volume is up. So if we lose any processing capability for any extended period of time, very difficult to make up that ground. And we have the vulnerability of having a backlog that, you know, builds up and becomes impossible to dig out of. So we do have lots of levers to pull to utilize different buildings in an emergency situation if there are unforeseen impacts that actually shut down a plant, which is rare. But when that does happen, we have plans to shift volume to other neighboring locations, keep the product moving the best we can, and then as soon as the roads open back up, provide that influx of delivery to Elvin. It's a challenge. Always hopeful, like I said, that it only snows where it's supposed to snow and nowhere else.
Jeff :
Elvin:
Well, a couple of things. I mean if they want to get their packages on time, I would pay attention to our mailing dates, right? We wanna make sure that they get into our retail lobbies and mail them on time. We want to get all Ground Advantages, the First-Class, in by December 17th, Priority Mail by December 18th, and Priority Mail Express by December 20th. And then if you need, all this information is on our Postal Service websites, public. And then utilize the automation that we have in our lobbies: self-service kiosks, our Smart Lockers, our Rapid Dropoff Stations. They're available and ease of use for all our customers. And from a delivery standpoint, we always ask, you know, keep your mailboxes free of any, anything in the way. Make sure that it's clear. If it happens to snow and, you know, in delivery, it doesn't matter to us. We go no matter what, you know, rain, snow, sleet, we're there. But it'll make it easier for us if we keep those areas clean so we can make sure we deliver your packages and your mail on time.
Jeff :
Sure. Good advice. Keep everybody safe. So let me shift the focus to you guys personally. How does your job change as we go into peak season? What, what's your schedule like, you know, what's it look like for you? Let's start with Isaac.
Isaac:
Well, a couple things. One is less and less strategy and more operational execution. I have a great team that are capable, experienced operational managers and leaders, but I do get more involved during peak on a daily basis given the magnitude of the challenge. So kind of shift hats from the strategic change and planning to operational execution. So it's fun for me because that's how I grew up in the organization. I was a plant manager, so I get closer to that daily grind that, you know, fuels most plant managers. We like it. We're a glutton for punishment to some extent.
Jeff :
That little bit of adrenaline, yeah.
Isaac:
Indeed. And I do make it a point to go out into our plants during peak. It was something that back in the day, you would never have a headquarters executive go out to the field. But I wanna see what's going on in the field, be as close to the work and the action as possible. Not because I'm necessary or am going to do anything that my team's not gonna do, but to walk a mile in their shoes and to feel what some of the challenges are that we can maybe solve for next year. So I'll be out and about all over the country. I have visited every single plant in the country, so I'll have to pick my spots on where I wanna get to for peak. Unfortunately there's like only like 30 days to do that, so I'll have to choose wisely.
Jeff :
How about your days? How's that changing for you, Elvin?
Elvin:
Similar to Isaac, we know we go away from sort of the strategy piece and more making sure the plans that we have, we execute them. I mean, not that our days get any shorter in retail and delivery, but you know, we expand our days by, you know, 12, 14 hours a day. We're doing seven day a week calls, focusing on the sites that we feel may be an issue for us. And similar to Isaac, you know, I expect every district manager, every executive, every POOM in the field, just monitoring and making sure that we're executing the plays that we gave him for peak season. So for me, it's exciting. I mean, I was, I started as a letter carrier, you know 38 years ago, and 38 years of peak seasons is just, for me, they get more and more exciting every year. And in this role it's even more exciting because I get to see the things that we've sent out to the field and it's fun to see when it's executed. So they're long days, but rewarding days for us.
Jeff :
Sure. You've both talked about plans, you've both talked about executing the plans. At what point do you know whether you are on the right track and that it's working?
Isaac:
The key thing for plants to be successful is that we don't have any unplanned buildups or backlogs in any of the facilities. Our goal is always to stay fluid. Volume comes in, volume goes out. We might have times where we're not able to get it through as fast as we want, but as long as we are keeping it moving and staying fluid, we know we're gonna be successful. But we have a billion metrics to track to make sure that that's happening, including cycle time. We have all sorts of analytics that look at how long it takes for volume to get to a building, into a building through the building, through the machines, into containers, onto trucks, and on its way to getting to the next facility, whether it's to be delivered or to the other plant. So we track all of that.
Isaac:
We have more dashboards than you could ever imagine, to do all that. And then it's at a high level, looking at the efficiency. I expect to be far more efficient this peak than we were last peak based on all of the changes that we've made. And we're expecting reliable, consistent, stable service. Last peak, there were a few periods where the service dropped below our expectations and we're confident that we've made enough adjustments so that the service will stay stable. It all comes down to staying fluid, staying focused, reacting to any unforeseen circumstances. So I could list 'em all if, if you want.
Jeff :
I was gonna ask Elvin, because you, you kind of had a little reaction when he was talking, when Isaac was talking about the data, because I know there's a massive amount of metrics and dashboards and stuff. When you're looking at that, how much of that is just pure data and how much is it, is just nearly 40 years of experience in postal, do you sort of decide whether things are working well?
Elvin:
I'll say about 70% of it is data. And similar to Isaac's comment, our goal is to not to have any backlog in our facilities when it comes to packages or letters or flats. I mean, we want to go in every single day clean and making sure that, for me, success is to make, by the time we get to Christmas Eve, every office is current and we move to go. We have a backlog dashboard. I mean, every morning it's populated by seven o'clock in the morning. I could tell who's in backlog, how many days they've been in backlog. Our goal is to be, if we're gonna have a backlog issue, because they're over capacity. We want them to be just one day. 30% for me is knowing the organization and knowing the collaboration that Isaac and I have, and knowing that he may have a hotspot somewhere where he may be over capacity. I need to be prepared that I don't, I don't need data for that. I just need to talk to him and he talks to me and we can work through that. That's day-to-day management, that's knowing your spots without having to go to a report.
Jeff :
Nice. So, as we're recording this a month before Christmas, how do you guys feel?
Elvin:
I feel great. I mean, we're super confident that we're gonna have a successful peak season. I mean, we've been planning for this for some time now. The team is ready, you know, every peak season. I mean, like I said, I've been doing this for a long time, and in this role, just under a year. But every peak season we call it, in retail and delivery, and I’m sure Isaac's team’s the same way, we call it our Super Bowl. This is where we come to shine. This is where people expect, they expect the most from us. And every employee in retail and delivery feels the same way. We go out of our way to make sure that our customers have the service that they deserve and they pay for. And it's an exciting time. And if I'm, if I'm in good shape going, like I mentioned earlier, if I'm in good shape going to Christmas Eve, all our employers are ecstatic. They get to go home, they get to relax with their families. So we're extremely confident. The collaboration that we've had over the last several months has helped us tremendously to plan and get ready for this big season. So I'm, I'm excited.
Jeff :
Isaac, is there anything you say to your managers or even the, the rank and file, you know, employees who are in the, in the plants and stuff, is there anything you say to them at this time of the year to get 'em pepped up?
Isaac:
Well, partly to answer the prior question and then to, you know, answer it for the team. It's the hardest part of the year for us. So it's, it's a marathon, it's not a sprint. Lean into it, embrace it, and all that. So that's what I do. I'm not comfortable in any way because I know it's about to start. I know it's about to be go time, it's gonna be hard, it's gonna be grueling, but it is our season. It's the time to shine and respond. And, you know, it is our Super Bowl. We all have experience to lend, especially to our, our new teammates that are maybe doing peak in a leadership role for the first time. But that's the message. It is our time to shine. It is our time to demonstrate what we are fully capable of as we face that challenge.
Jeff :
Well, Isaac, Elvin, I know it's a really busy time for you guys. Thanks for taking the time, coming in and talking with us and talking with our listeners about what you guys are doing. It feels pretty good that we're ready for it. I feel a confidence in both of you guys that the plans are there, the capacity's there, the staffing's there, the experience is there, that we can have a good season. So I'm wishing you all the best.
Elvin:
Oh, thank you for having us.
Isaac:
Thank you. Happy holidays.
Jeff :
It's time for another edition of “Did You Know?” when we share interesting facts about the Postal Service. Every year on the podcast, we talk about new stamps the Postal Service introduces for the winter holiday season. But did you know the Postal Service issued its first Christmas stamp on November 1st, 1962, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania? As you would expect, the stamps were red and green and featured a Christmas wreath, two candles, and the words “Christmas 1962.” Customers had been requesting Christmas stamps for years, but the Postal Service just wasn't sure it was worth the cost to issue a stamp that would be popular for just one season. But when it finally happened, the Postal Service knew they would be in demand. They printed 500 million stamps at the time. That was the largest number of specialized stamps ever printed at one time. And even with that big order, the Postal Service quickly ran out and had to have a few hundred million more printed. By the end of 1962, about 862 million Christmas stamps had been printed. The following year the Postal Service ordered nearly 1.3 billion. Again, they were a blockbuster success and it only grew from there. Now our winter lineup typically includes stamps for Hanukkah, Kwanza, and other holidays around that time of year.
And that's all for this episode of Mailin' It! Don't forget to subscribe to Mailin' It! wherever you get your podcasts to make sure you don't miss the next episode, and follow along on Instagram @USPostalService, X @USPS, Facebook, and YouTube.