Delivery Service

[Anchor Lead]

With the lunar New Year's holiday of Seol less than a week away, one of the busiest places in Korea is the package delivery service firms. Delivery men can hardly take a break as they're swamped with holiday gift packages.

[Pkg]

Early in the morning at a post office sorting room. Packages are pouring in from all over the country. Carts carrying packages come and go ceaselessly. With Lunar New Year holiday gifts flooding in, this post office processes about 13,000 packages a day. That's twice the average amount. 130 people were normally enough to handle the load, but now the number has increased to 150. The post office even hired part-time workers because they were shorthanded even when all post office employees were called into work.

[Soundbite] Choi Nak-in(Chuncheon Post Office) : "All the employees are working hard to deliver packages on time."

The packages sorted this way are loaded onto trucks to be delivered. As soon as the postman arrives at a destination, he runs up the stairs carrying a hefty package.

[Soundbite] "Hello, here is your package. (Thank you.)"

A single delivery person has to deliver about 180 packages a day these days, leaving practically no time for lunch.

[Soundbite] Woo Yeong-cheol(Chuncheon Post Office Mailman) : "I often skip lunch. I usually eat at home after work. I rarely eat lunch during the holidays."

Package delivery personnel work frantically every day so that Lunar New Year gifts can reach their recipients before the holiday.