The U.S. Postal Service West Valley Processing and Distribution Center in Phoenix is gearing up for the annual rush of holiday packages. Julie Utley, customer relations coordinator, talks about the extra workload.

There’s a crash as a slew of parcels, boxes and manila envelopes spill onto a conveyor belt, while employees whiz by, pushing carts with bundles of packages.

It’s early December, and the U.S. Postal Service is in full swing, moving around 17 million packages daily just in Arizona. That’s about 2 million more packages daily than is typically processed throughout the year.

At the U.S. Postal Service West Valley Processing and Distribution Center in Phoenix, packages are pushed onto belts, sorted by size, scanned, and moved for delivery. The packages swing around on a sorter that looks like a roller coaster, with a large, looping circular belt that moves giant boxes to ramps where they are sorted by location and tossed down. Each box will eventually find its way to a white-and-blue mail truck for delivery. read more