Postal Service gears up for holiday season

The Postal Service's annual holiday news briefing, held Tuesday at the National Postal Museum in Washington, focused this year on mail safety and the anthrax threat, rather than the logistics of delivering mail to Santa. According to Postal Service Chief Operating Officer Pat Donahoe, discussions are ongoing with White House and congressional budgeters to find funding for new technology to 'sanitize' the mail and make it safe from anthrax bacteria and other germs. The agency's request for more than $1.1 billion to safeguard the nation's mail against attacks by bioterrorists and make up for revenue lost since Sept. 11 has run into political snags. The House Rules Committee is expected to vote Tuesday on an amendment to the defense authorization bill that would provide the Postal Service with additional funding. Despite these inside-the-beltway battles, the Postal Service is gearing up for another busy holiday season. The agency will deliver more than 20 billion pieces of mail by Christmas. The Postal Service handles upwards of 150 million pieces of mail a day during the holiday season, 50 million more than on an average day. Unlike other years, however, the Postal Service will not hire a lot of temporary workers for the holiday season. Automation in mail processing plants has eliminated the need for temporary help, Donahoe said. This year, the agency will hire between 5,000 and 10,000 temporary workers, compared with 40,000 last year. The Postal Service is looking forward to the holiday mailing season since it has been suffering from a downturn in mail volume. The holiday season is typically the busiest time of the year for the agency. Standard mail volume is down 6 percent and First Class mail volume is down 2 percent from the agency's projections.