As the holidays near, so does the busiest time of year for mail.

Over a span of three months, The Times tested the reliability of shipping mail to and from the region through the United States Postal Service.

The Times investigation revealed that letters mailed to, from and within the region arrive at their destinations quickly and with contents intact -- despite hefty cuts made by the postal service to adapt to declining mail volume.

The Times mailed 200 letters to and from locations in Northwest Indiana, Chicago and Michigan. Of those, 100 letters contained money, which the postal service advises against mailing, and 100 contained gift cards.

All 200 cards arrived at their destinations in pristine condition within one to three days, the investigation showed.

Kim Yates, communications program specialist for the U.S. Postal Service in Indiana, said she was pleased with the results of The Times' test.

"That's the customer service we strive to provide every day, even as we make changes to the business that we've never had to do before," Yates said.

It's no secret the United States Postal Service is falling victim to a technology-based society.

Kevin Waldrop, a Hobart native, said he doesn't have much need for the post office. The 25-year-old said he receives his bills via e-mail and pays electronically.

Waldrop is not the only one.

Mail volume plummeted by 28 billion pieces from last year to the present, Yates said.

"You can imagine the revenue loss that came in conjunction with that," she said. "We have to make decisions, some hard decisions."

Yates said the postal service is merging mail routes and enacted voluntary early retirement programs to save money.

About 300 to 400 Indiana-based postal workers have accepted early retirement offers, she said. About 20,000 employees have done so nationwide.

Yates said the post office has never enacted layoffs, but more financial cuts are expected in the future.

The agency is considering closing three local post office branches -- the Lake Station post office, the Brunswick branch on Gary's West Side and the finance unit at 115 W. Fifth Ave. in Gary. No final decisions have been made.

Hearing that the service is shuttering offices and pulling some blue mailboxes off the street is sad news to Dyer resident Elaine Olson.

"I can't believe that," the senior said. "I don't want to live in this world like that. Everybody in this world does not have a computer. I'm a mailer."

Each year, Olson said she diligently sends birthday cards to her loved ones, including her 2-year-old great-grandson. One day, she said, he hopefully will grow up to read them and appreciate the simple gift of a card.

Olson said she sees the merit in some technological devices, such as cell phones, when needed in emergency situations. But she lamented that today's innovations have all but killed the intimate charm of sending and receiving inscribed notes.

"This is ridiculous, how dependent people have become on technology," she said.

Waldrop admits his technologically savvy lifestyle comes at the cost of a personal touch. He said a handwritten birthday card sent through the post office is more meaningful that an electronic version.

"You know the time it took," Waldrop said, adding cards also make a more lasting impression. "I don't think the post office is ever going to go away. It just needs to adjust to the times. ... It has to adapt."

Where are the blue boxes?

The U.S. Postal Service's signature blue mailboxes are becoming increasingly hard to find in the region.

Seventy-one blue boxes have been removed from region streets since the beginning of 2009, postal service spokeswoman Kim Yates said. There are still 411 blue boxes in Lake and Porter counties.

Yates said the decision to keep or remove mailboxes is determined by how much each is used. The boxes are tested for two weeks to a month, and if there are less than 25 letters a day in the box, it is slated for "retirement," Yates said.

She said the postal service doesn't want to remove mailboxes in convenient locations, but it also doesn't want to waste resources on rarely used ones.