Andalusia Postmaster Mike Kolmetz said local mail carriers will be working late today if necessary to make sure they do their part in spreading holiday cheer.

“We’ll be running deliveries (today), even if we get express delivery times after our normal delivery times,” he said. “It will all be delivered before we go home this afternoon.

“We want to make sure anything we think is a Christmas present is off our shelves and delivered,” Kolmetz said.

Nationwide, the USPS’s shipping volume is up 15 percent this season. Locally, Kolmetz said, volume is up 6 percent.

“This is my twenty-first Christmas season with the Post Office,” he said. “It’s the heaviest I’ve ever seen it.”

He attributes that to changing trends in shopping patterns, with more and more people making online purchases.

“Things have changed,” he said. “I’m still a brick and mortar man, but more people are shopping online.”

A big factor is the free, two-day delivery offered to Amazon Prime customers.

“We have changed our operations to accommodate them and other online retailers,” he said. “In the larger areas of the country, same-day Amazon is even available. And in certain markets, we even deliver on Sunday.”

For those who still need to ship items, or do regular Post Office business, the window will be open until noon today, normal operating hours for the local office.