CODE-RED LETTER DAY SHIPPERS HIT CRUNCH TIME.

Byline: JULIA M. SCOTT Staff Writer

There are thousands of packages to deliver on the busiest mail day of the year, but FedEx deliveryman Jon Barton isn't even breaking a sweat.

``I've been on this route four years. I know all the shortcuts,'' said Barton, 51, as he arranged boxes from L.L. Bean, Neiman Marcus and Target before his 70-stop route in Chatsworth.

To handle the 10,000 extra boxes and envelopes that came through the North Hills warehouse Monday -- on top of the usual 45,000 parcels -- workers started just 30 minutes earlier than usual.

``They can't pull the packages off the truck any faster,'' said Vince Cioffi, senior manager of the depot. To handle the crush, employees, including Cioffi, work an average two hours longer.

It's the same story for the United States Postal Service, which was to handle 280 million cards and letters on its busiest day, Monday. ``We open our offices earlier and we close them later,'' said spokesman Larry Dozier.

United Parcel Service will peaks Wednesday, when 21 million packages are expected to flow through its facilities. FedEx was to handle 9.8 million packages nationwide on its busiest day, Monday.

Mailrooms around the San Fernando Valley were swamped by the rush to ship presents. But customers at the east Palmdale post office were also faced with a high-tech nightmare when a power pole was knocked down by a hit-and-run driver and triggered an hours-long computer-system crash.

``This is the busiest day of the year, and then this happens?'' Palmdale resident Earline Fontennette complained.

Employees directed customers to other Antelope Valley branches while crews worked to restore power.

``You can't control what happens when you have an accident that hits the power lines,'' Postmaster Robert Montanez said. ``We just deal with it like the rest of the customers.''

At the post office in Valencia, extended hours and extra staffers helped keep the line moving. The expedited service was good news for Jacqueline Patterson as she struggled to balance a tower of packages.

``I have had the presents for weeks but I got so busy packing presents at home that I didn't realize the date,'' she said.

Time is one thing FedEx employees are acutely aware of. In the North Hills warehouse, the sorting starts at 6:15 a.m. around the holidays. Workers unload packages from shiny metal containers as tall as an elephant and place them on a sluggish belt. A package's code determines whether a sorter pushes it to the far side of the belt, the middle, or keeps it nearby.

A hundred feet down, the belt splits and another worker divides the packages. The parcels crawl toward white trucks and are plucked off according to their destination in the Valley.

Barton, the deliveryman, keeps parcels that have to be unloaded before 10:30 a.m. at eye level, on the top shelf, as a ticking reminder of his tight schedule.

``You don't backtrack,'' he said. ``Because the time it takes you to backtrack, you could have gone forward and gotten five stops.''

Barton has done his route so many times that he knows exactly when he needs to leave the warehouse and when he needs to finish the first half of his route to ``make service.'' If Barton is late even once, he hears from his manager before the day ends.

Sometimes, he hears from his manager before the day begins.

At 8:16 a.m. Monday, Barton's manager asks him to stop talking to a visitor so that he can finish sorting his load and take off. He sets out 10 minutes later but isn't worried about time.

Barton has a ``snoozer'' of a day ahead of him, just 67 packages to deliver in 4.5 hours, or about one every four minutes.

He has plenty of motivation to work quickly. The sooner Barton finishes, the sooner he takes lunch. After eating, he begins his pick-up route and then heads home.

Staff Writers Connie Llanos and Gideon Rubin contributed to this report.

julia.scott(at)dailynews.com

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Deadlines

For Christmas Eve delivery, make sure to send by:

Saturday: Express Mail via USPS (except for remote destinations)

Friday: FedEx Express

Friday: UPS Next Day Air

CAPTION(S):

2 photos, box

Photo:

(1 -- 2 -- color) FedEx driver Jeff Owens, above, checks in a few more packages Monday at the North Hills sorting facility. Below, FedEx driver Jon Barton carries a big package to be delivered in Chatsworth.

Tina Burch/Staff Photographer

Box:

Deadlines (see text)