Post office gives tips for sending parcels

Even if you managed to get that package to the UK or United States in the post this week, it probably won’t get there in time for Christmas. You might get it there in time for New Year’s though, if you follow certain guidelines to help speed delivery. Janelle Chanona got some tips from the experts today at the post office, and an update on incoming gifts from your Santas abroad.

Calvert Quilter, Parcel Supervisor

“It’s been hectic. We’ve delivered at least over five hundred parcels a week… what normally we wouldn’t have in a whole month.”

Every year around Christmas time, the mail load triples for the Belize Postal Service and so do all the problems that go along with delivering mail… from poor handwriting to improperly wrapped parcels. The Postal Service has a few basic suggestions… print names, wrap packages in brown paper and don’t use string; it gets caught in package handling machines abroad. The size of your parcel is also very important.

Calvert Quilter

“Packages should be, when you are mailing a package, it shouldn’t be longer than three and a half feet and when you combine the length and the total, that would be the girth, shouldn’t be longer than six feet.”

And then there’s the question of whether you should “lick or not lick,” and there is a price difference.

Ewart Bradley, Postal Controller

“Items going unsealed will cost the customer twenty-five cents. This will lessen the price from normal sixty cents per item sealed. And thirty cents unsealed to UK and Europe normal is seventy-five cents to UK and Europe.”

Saving money by not sealing envelopes only works if you are not sending anything confidential. Something you should never do is to send cash through the mail. Not only is it illegal, it’s unsafe and it’s very easy to get a postal money order.

Ewart Bradley

“It’s safe, yeah, cause it has a number in case of loss you can trace a money order and you can get a replacement if the item is mislaid or lost whatever the case may be. But if you send cash, cash cannot be recovered.”

But if you haven’t received a parcel or letter that you’ve been waiting for, there’s a reason, Belize hasn’t gotten any mail since Friday. Bradley says a shipment should be in soon.

Ewart Bradley

“Up to date, we have about five days outstanding. Meaning from last week Friday up to yesterday. We’ve made many contacts with the Miami officials; we have called them. So quite likely today, we should receive a bulk of mail on either AmeriJet or TACA Airlines.”

Janelle Chanona for News Five.

Parcel notices are delivered with letters either to your home or P.O. box. Please remember duty might be charged on some items sent in your packages.