Crunch time here for holiday shipping

Haven't found time to send those presents off to faraway grandparents, nephews and nieces? You're not alone.Those in the shipping business expect Monday to be their busiest day of the holiday season. And with precious moments ticking down until the packages must be sent (Thursday for both Fed Ex and UPS and Dec. 23 for the U.S. Postal Service's Express Mail), holiday gift-givers will be rushing to make sure presents are under the tree come Christmas morning.Monday should be the busiest day for the Auburn Main Post Office."People go shopping on the weekends and they think they have to get it out on Monday," said Rick Burtzlaff, postmaster of the office on Nevada Street. "Our goal is five minutes or less (in line). It's the perception, though. You think you're there forever."Ensure packages get there by making sure addresses are correct and have the zip code, which postal workers rely on to get packages to the right place fast, Burtzlaff said. Packages should be well wrapped so they don't incur damage and have all delivery confirmation and insurance forms filled out.Packages have to go priority or express to make it for sure by Christmas, he said.Beth Bowman of Lake of the Pines was making an emergency shipment of Christmas tree lights Thursday for her sister in Laguna Beach who couldn't find hers.She didn't mind the line Thursday."Part of the fun is standing in line," she said. "It's not really Christmas unless you're standing in line somewhere."Although the post office had all six service windows staffed with mail clerks Thursday, there are ways to leave the line out of your holiday shipping experience.Customers can "click and ship" by printing postage at home and having their priority mail picked up at home.Burtzlaff recently picked up 360 packages of candy a local business was having shipped to its customers."It keeps them out of here and keeps our lines down," he said of the service.Customers can also use the automated postal center 24/7 to drop-off parcels after a late night of gift-wrapping.Extended hours from 7:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. through Thursday will keep the office's employees working longer, later hours."We just bring in everybody we can to help during this two-week period when people really depend on us," Burtzlaff said.Other shipping stores were feeling the holiday push this week as well."The last two days have been pretty crazy," said Dinah Thomas, store manager for The UPS Store on Bell Road. "We're lucky if we get a lunch."The business shipped out 292 packages Monday. On a typical non-holiday, they might only see 30 packages."People need to get here as soon as possible," she said, taking a moment out of the interview to answer customer questions. "The longer they wait, the more it will cost them."No shipping challenge is too great. Thomas said the store has successfully shipped large artwork and even the mounted head of a prize-winning chamois goat."Our favorite thing is to do packaging. We hire people for the holidays, we call them the elves, and all they do is package," she said. "We don't mind if people bring in piles of their gifts."Mary Anne Hulse, of Auburn, chose to do her shipping with UPS Wednesday."There was no crowd and our address is already in the computer," she said. "It was very pleasant."Hulse estimates she spent $50 to $100 shipping items to extended family back in Kansas, Colorado and Missouri."We did send back some mandarins," she said, explaining her shipping costs.UPS is expecting its "peak day" to be Dec. 20, with more than 20 million deliveries - or 230 every second - occurring that day. FedEx Kinko's on Highway 49 in Auburn is getting busier and busier as Christmas approaches."Every day the pile (of packages) gets taller and taller," said Linda Stoughton, center manager. "Right now everyone's into ground shipping but next week it's not going to be that way. They're going to be in the crunch for packages to get there in a hurry, so they'll have to use Express."Using a computer system, employees can look up when packages can get to their destination, she said. FedEx Express stands by its shipping times, she said.If you don't think the recipient of your express package will be available to sign for it, you can choose to "hold at location" and have it ready for pick-up at any Kinko's.But please avoid some certain things when shipping."You can box however you want, just do not put brown paper on it," Stoughton said. "All it takes is one package ripped open to hold up our conveyor belt."The Journal's Michelle Miller can be reached at michellem@goldcountrymedia.com.