CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Geanette Land has spent three decades making sure you get what you need 365 days of the year.
She starts her day picking up then loading hundreds of items. Every letter, every package is important.
“I love my job, I do, all my family all my friends know I love my job," Land said.
November to December is the busiest mailing and shipping season for the United States Postal Service.
With the clock ticking down until Christmas, people are rushing to the post office to send or receive those last-minute items before Dec. 25.
Ship Matrix, a firm software company that tracks delivery times says the vast majority of packages delivered by UPS, FedEx, and the Postal Service will get to you on time. From Dec. 12 through Dec. 21, percentages for FedEx were at 91%, UPS at 97% and USPS at 96%.
"We installed 112, high-speed package sorting machines, and so that's ultimately helped with packages during this holiday season," Philip Bogenberger, a communications specialist for the USPS, said. "I mean, we can process the packages 10 to 12 to sometimes 15 times faster than we were able to do with manual sorting."
Postal workers like Land are loading up and hitting the road with trucks full of packages and letters.
For them, it's more than a job.
“I love meeting the people, the family, and getting to know them. The people I work with and my own extended family," Land said. "And I call the people on my route my postal family.”
The 36-year veteran of the postal service hasn’t lost her personal touch.
“She’s the best mail carrier and I just moved into this neighborhood," a woman on her mail route said. "She made sure she introduced herself to me she put a sticker in my mailbox, [with] what mail belongs in my mailbox. You don’t get any better than that.”
Land knows it's not just the Christmas card you’ve been waiting on, or the medicine you need before the holidays.
There’s something special about knowing you’ll get your item — whatever it is — on time.
“We want to get your packages to you in a timely manner," Land said. "We want to make sure that everybody has something to open up on Christmas Day."
She'll spend the day delivering packages making sure that happens.
The deadline to send items through the postal service and receive them by Christmas has passed.
Post offices are open on Dec. 24, but they’re closed on Dec. 25, Christmas Day. Priority Express Mail is delivered 365 days a year, including Christmas morning.
Contact Shamarria Morrison at smorrison@wcnc.com and follow her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.