Post Office Ready For Holiday Rush

Tuesday, November 28th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

WASHINGTON (AP) â€” The Postal Service is bringing in thousands of temporary workers, 80 more airplanes, extra trucks and trains and even the residents of Whoville to speed the movement of holiday mail.

``We have planned well and feel confident that we will be able to handle the increased heavy volume,'' Nicholas Barranca, head of operations planning and processing, said Monday.

Between Thanksgiving and Christmas, the agency will handle an average of 150 million pieces of mail daily, he said. That's 50 million per day more than the rest of the year.

Barranca said the peak day is expected to be Dec. 11, when he is estimating 280 million items will be postmarked. A second peak is expected Dec. 18, with the busiest delivery days between Dec. 13 and 20.

For last-minute shoppers, Express Mail will be delivered on Sunday, Dec. 24, and on Christmas Day itself, Barranca said.

Nonetheless, he called on Americans to send their mail â€” especially packages â€” early. He stressed the importance of clearly printed addresses, including return addresses and having the correct ZIP code.

As part of their effort to get people to mail early, the post office has licensed the characters from the Universal Pictures film ``How the Grinch Stole Christmas.''

The Grinch character is appearing in a Postal Service commercial, urging customers to send Christmas mail early, and characters from Whoville decorate postal lobbies.

The Postal Service command center at its Washington headquarters coordinates the flow of mail and operates 24-hours-a-day during the holiday season, rerouting mail around foul weather and other bottlenecks to speed delivery.

In addition, Barranca said, the agency is adding about 40,000 temporary workers, putting 60 million more sacks and mail trays into service, establishing three air hubs with 80 more planes and adding more trucks and trains to temporary service.

Barranca said people sending packages by parcel post should get them in the mail by Dec. 8 to assure delivery before Christmas. Priority Mail can be sent until Dec. 18. After that Express Mail should be used, he said.

Mailers will see the same Christmas stamps this year as last. Because there was leftover stock last year, the agency decided to use that up and reprint more if needed, rather than introducing new holiday stamps. The Postal Service estimates that it will save about $4 million.

Some tips from Barranca:

â€”A wrong ZIP code is worse than no ZIP code; get the right one from the Postal Service Web site: http://www.usps.com.

â€”Always use a return address.

â€”Print or type the address.

â€”Cushion the contents of parcels.

â€”Use strong, reinforced tape. Do not use string.

â€”Place a return address label inside the package.

â€”Remove batteries from toys and wrap them separately.

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On the Net:

U.S. Postal Service site: http://www.usps.com