USPS accelerates infrastructure investments ahead of 2021 holiday season

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The US Postal Service (USPS) has announced the acceleration of its network infrastructure investments to meet customers’ evolving mailing and shipping needs ahead of the 2021 holiday season. This was stated to be part of its 10-year plan to achieve financial sustainability and service improvement.

These initiatives and investments include:

  • An accelerated investment and procurement of 138 package processing sorters that will be operational ahead of the 2021 peak holiday season, with plans to purchase additional processing machines over the next 18 months as package volume grows. As USPS expands its role in the e-commerce marketplace, it aims to deploy and maintain a diverse suite of package sorters and material handling equipment to optimise processing throughputs. In March, USPS customer demand for package deliveries has grown 28% yoy.
  • The leasing of an additional 45 annex facilities located near processing centres in key locations to support surges and overflow of packages.
  • The movement of mail processing operations at 18 facilities previously paused in 2015. Those select moves will follow USPS’ existing contractual process and be completed by November 2021. Due to the decline in mail volume, it aims to relocate or remove unnecessary letter and flat sorting equipment as appropriate to make space for package processing. Moving, removing, and repurposing mail processing equipment and operations or “operational mail moves” is stated to be an ongoing Postal Service strategy.

“The Postal Service’s future depends on its ability to adapt to the evolving demands of our customers,” said Postmaster General and CEO Louis DeJoy. “These initiatives and investments give our employees the infrastructure and technology they need to serve today’s e-Commerce marketplace reliably and efficiently. This optimization will lead to more efficient and reliable performance in our plants, which in turn will enhance our ability to predictably and reliably deliver mail to the more than 161 million addresses we serve each day.”

With full implementation, the Postal Service’s 10-year plan aims to reverse a projected $160bn in losses over the next ten years. The Plan wants to spur cash flow and savings to make $40bn in capital investments over the next 10 years – including $20bn towards USPS’ mail and package processing network, facility upgrades and procurement of new processing equipment.   

Mail volume has declined by more than 39bn pieces, or 23%, in the past 10 years and is continuing to decline. First-Class Mail has dropped 27% and single piece First-Class Mail — letters bearing postage stamps — has declined 41% during the same timeframe, according to USPS.

Source: USPS

 

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