USPS Office of Inspector General

The holidays might be over but the package returns season is in high gear. It kicked off in mid-December, shortly after the first wave of holiday deliveries, and is expected to run through most of this month.

It’s the week before Thanksgiving, when attention turns to travel, favorite family recipes, overeating, and, of course, package delivery.

That’s right. Cyber Monday is right around the corner and predictions put this year’s spend at roughly $3.8 billion in sales. And with an expected jump in online sales of 18-21 percent over the entire holiday season, the U.S. Postal Service is preparing for a 10 percent increase in the number of packages it will deliver (to 850 million) between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day.

This year, it almost feels like the unofficial motto of the U.S. Postal Service should be changed to “neither hurricanes, floods, nor wildfires stay these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.”