It's that time of year again - when deadlines to ship holiday packages are fast approaching.
Canada Post is preparing for a high volume of holiday deliveries this year.
"We've seen things actually just explode this year. We had Christmas [volume] in May and June and that's continued, but we knew this holiday season was going to be busy and then we saw a number of cities shut down alot of areas out of safety precautions, so we've been operating all year long, providing an essential service. We're pleased to do that and to help out the small and medium-sized businesses and the larger businesses deliver their goods and I think we're seeing consumers learn alot this year [...] We can see them looking out for some of those local shops that they want to support," said Jon Hamilton, a spokesperson with Canada Post.
When asked about deadlines, Hamilton tells our media partner CP24 that the sooner people can get their packages sent out, the better.
"If you're sending something, we have options until the 21st - that's the Monday. Christmas is a Friday, so the last delivery date is the Thursday. But, the earlier the better. Give yourself some time. Get those things in the mail as quickly as possible. If you're shopping online, look at the retailers shipping information. They have alot of good information there. We've been feeding them information as well, so they could help their customers understand how long it's going to take to get certain options [...] and also options, if you want it sooner or later. But, the sooner, the better on anything. There's alot of Canadians shopping online this year."
In addition to the high volume this year, Canada Post notes that because of safety precautions due to COVID-19, Canadians should anticipate some delays.
You're advised to track your parcel online, so you can see where it is in the system. The postal service says they're processing items 24 hours a day.
Even with the addition of 4,000 extra employees and 1,000 extra vehicles, Canada Post says there is a limit to how much they can safely process and deliver each day.
For example, last weekend, on Sunday, Canada Post says they delivered about 800 thousand parcels. The following day, on the Monday, they delivered 2.1 million parcels.