CALGARY – The deadlines to mail your Christmas cards and gifts to loved ones across the province and beyond are quickly approaching.
If you’re planning to send cards through Canada Post within the province, they have to be mailed by the end of Thursday, while cards within the city must be sent by Friday.
Packages sent through Xpresspost have to be sent by December 22nd, and Priority packages can be sent up to December 23rd to guarantee they’ll make it under the Christmas tree.
According to Operations Manager at Calgary’s Canada Post plant Marcel Viveiros, the volume of deliveries is way up year over year.
Over the weekend of December 13th and 14th, 40,000 pieces of mail were delivered in Calgary – and this weekend is expected to top that.
“I know that in 2012 we had two days where we passed the million parcels-a-day mark,” says Viveiros. “In 2013 there was ten days- and we expect to surpass that in 2014 as well.”
To process all the letter mail and parcels, staffing has been increased from 17 shifts a week to 21 shifts a week. In addition, Canada Post has been delivering on weekends since the end of November.
The Canada Post plant in Calgary is highly automated. Workers unpack parcels by hand when they arrive at the plant via truck from mail boxes or community post offices, transferring them onto a conveyer belt which snakes through the building to a central loop.
As it zips along, it passes through a “scan tunnel” which reads the barcode on the package. That data contains the address of the recipient – and the track is programmed to direct the parcel to the proper bin.
From there, it’s sorted by hand again and loaded onto the truck for delivery.
According to Viveiros, the plant can process up to 5,000 pieces of mail each hour.
“That parcel can get through our building in six minutes,” he says. “During busier times of year, like it is right now, I would say that parcel gets through in an hour.”
Operations supervisor, Jennifer Tobin, says there are some things people can do help ensure the shipping process goes smoothly:
- “Make sure everything’s wrapped inside and it’s packed well with bubble wrap.”
- “No string or strapping on the parcels, we prefer you don’t do that, because with our new conveyer system it gets caught up in the machinery.”
- “Make sure there’s lots of packing tape on the item so that it doesn’t come open.”
- “If you reuse your package make sure you take off your old bar code, otherwise the item could be sent to the wrong address.”
Viveiros says the goal is to ensure every card and parcel finds a home by Christmas.
“On December 24th, we’re going to play road hockey in here because it’s so clean.”
– With files from Amber Schinkel
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