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UPS driver and Poughkeepsie native Jay Lefevre spent the spring distributing vital COVID-19 vaccines across the region.

Now, Lefevre and his fellow UPS drivers are kicking into high gear again for the holiday season.

“My route usually runs about eight-and-a-half, nine hours a day so not too bad,” said Lefevre. “I love what I do.”

They’re still delivering vaccines, but there are holiday gifts to deliver too.

Lefevre has practically grown up at UPS.

As the Christmas shopping season reaches its peak, the post office, UPS, and FedEx are preparing to make sure those gifts arrive on time.

UPS said it has hired more than 100,000 temporary workers to help get the job done.

“We also are taking great care to manage our network. And what that means is we’re only going to accept the packages from some of the largest retailers that we that we’ve promised to deliver for them,” Jim Mayer, Spokesperson for UPS, said. “So the most important thing to UPS is to have a reliable network for all of our customers.”

UPS recommends printing two labels if you plan on shipping your own items.

“One of the things I like to tell people is when you print that label, actually print two copies. So put one in the box, and then one on the box,” Mayer said. “If for some reason something happens to the label in route, the first thing we’re going to do is open it up and try to figure out where it’s supposed to go. If we find that second label, we’ll just put it on the box. “

Duluth Police are investigating after they say someone broke into and ransacked the UPS shipping center.

Police were called to the building on the 100 block of Port Terminal Drive, near Garfield Avenue, around 5:40 p.m. Sunday.

They say multiple items were “ransacked,” but they couldn’t give details on exactly how much damage was done or if any items were stolen.

He’s a link in Santa’s global supply chain

Nick Walny of Clinton Township has always found his work as a UPS truck driver rewarding but never more than in the last two years.

When everything was locked down because of the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions he was among the drivers who ventured outside of his home to deliver medicine to patients who were unable to leave theirs — and when the vaccines became available – it was UPS drivers who were given the responsibility of delivering the precious cargo to hospitals, urgent cares and doctor’s offices.

Now it’s Santa Claus who is counting on Nick.

Second to Black Friday, Cyber Monday is the busiest online shopping day.

Millions of people will be shopping online for the best deals on items. This means the shipping supply chain, will be busy including UPS’ Willowbrook facility on Houston’s Northwest side.

“These packages are picked up all over the country. They are unloaded from a trailer, sorted at our facility, loaded on a package car for the end customer delivery. Ninety percent of our package flow will go through our automated facilities by the end of the year,” explained Derek Wood, UPS Operations Manager. “Right now we are projected to be about 5 to 10 percent higher than last year.”