LENEXA, Kan. — With Christmas fast approaching, thousands of people around the Kansas City area are counting on their online purchases to be delivered on time for Christmas morning.
KSHB 41 News checked in with a regional Amazon delivery station to get an inside look at all their efforts in the final stretch of the peak season.
“We’re very busy, we’re always busy,” said operations manager, Chris Rorrer. “We want to make sure that every customer gets their package in the time frame that we have allotted for.”
Rorrer is dressing up as Santa Claus and hand-delivering up to 200 packages himself this year.
“I have to work on Christmas Eve either way, so might as well do it all out,” Rorrer said. “I also want to do it for the team camaraderie — for Amazon. Making sure that all the drivers know even our managers, all are delivering packages up to Christmas Eve.”
He says his team is feeling the pinch during the pandemic as more people shop online for their Christmas lists.
In fact, Amazon opened three new delivery stations in 2021 across the metro to meet the growing demand. Across the five locations, they deliver roughly 150 to 200,000 packages a day.
“It was extremely busy last year. We were putting our stations to the maximum capacity,” Rorrer said.
Many Turner, a Site Lead for one of the new locations, says she has been trying to stay one step ahead by planning for the peak season since September.
“We have around 200 employees at our site — here at our DKS 3,” Turner said. “We brought on an additional 150 this season and looking to keep most of those people.”
Since Black Friday the Lenexa facility alone has delivered over 1.1. million packages.
Rorrer says while his team is working to beat the clock, logistically they are in great shape.
“Just be patient. We are working, and we’re doing our best to get it to you,” Rorrer said.
