RENO, NV -- With Christmas less than two weeks away, more people are heading to the post office to get their gifts sent. The United States Postal Service expects to process more than 18 billion pieces of mail nationwide this month.

Northern Nevada operations manager, Jerry DePaoli, says customers can make their shipping process quick and easy.  “We have an automated postal center in a lot of our locations, like this one at Steamboat, where you can just go to the machine and weigh your package and it will print out the proper postage,” DePaoli said.

And customers like Ed and Deanna Nelson say they use this self-service machine often because it’s simple to use.  “Because you can come here some days and the lines clear out the street, so using this machine, it’s faster,” said Ed Nelson.

Marcus Petta, however, went the old fashion way to get help, by waiting in line. Although he says it went quick.  “It took about, maybe 10 minutes, very good service,” Petta said.

But there’s even a way for customers to avoid going to the post office altogether. DePaoli says go on USPS.com and you won’t need to leave your house.  “You can get our priority boxes sent to you for free, you can get labels,” DePaoli said. “You can print your postage and you can click on a button and your carrier will come pick it up for you for absolutely no charge.”

DePaoli says the post office expects about a 20 percent increase in parcel volume this year.