10 THINGS YOU DON’T KNOW ABOUT THE U.S. POSTAL SERVICE

1. Don’t fight Mother Nature this holiday season. Stay inside where it’s nice and warm and let the Postal Service do what it does best – pick up and deliver mail. Free package pickup is available from home or office, regardless of the weather. Unlike other shipping companies, there is no fee for the service. usps.com/pickup

2. The Postal Service will deliver more than 10.5 million pounds of mail to military installations around the world, including war zones in Iraq and Afghanistan.

3. Greeting cards, postcards, gift cards from more than 20 national retailers, even year-end letters to family and friends can be created, packaged and mailed through the NetPost suite of services. Hasslefree shopping at a time that’s convenient to you. usps.com/cardstore

4. Santa isn’t the only one working on Christmas. The Postal Service will deliver Express Mail in most major cities on Dec. 24 and Dec. 25.

5. Going away for the holidays? Don’t worry. Premium Forwarding Service allows you to have all your mail sent to you at your temporary location. Most mail is forwarded once a week by Priority Mail. usps.com/premiumforwarding

6. Whether it’s shipping labels or shipping overseas, the U.S. Postal Service has a solution. And most can be found in the 2006 Holiday Shipping and Mailing Guide, sent to 110 million residential households in America. The guide provides clear, concise information on services, shipping options and Postal Service products, with an emphasis on customer convenience.

7. The Postal Service will deliver 20 billion cards, letters and packages between Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve. On average, the Postal Service processes 670 million pieces of mail every day. On the peak holiday mailing day, Dec. 18, that volume will increase to 900 million pieces of mail. On that day alone.

8. To move all this mail the Postal Service will increase air cargo lift of mail by almost 40 percent, hire about 10,000 seasonal workers, and place 210,000 delivery vehicles on roadways. By Dec. 9, the National Operations Center will be staffed around the clock, seven days a week, to monitor and coordinate mail transportation nationwide.

9. More than 4 billion holiday stamps will be printed this year. Stamps recognizing Kwanzaa, Hanukkah and Eid, as well as the Madonna and Child image, are available during the holiday season.

10. Log on to usps.com and step into a Post Office. Ship a package, arrange a free package pickup, purchase stamps, design and print holiday cards, print postage and shipping labels and order specialty philatelic gift products.