An inspector general report issued in July said that Postal Service has opportunities to improve its planning for peak season. Image: mikeledray/Shutterstock.com
The Postal Service has said it is “ready to handle the expected increase in mail and package volume during the holidays,” citing seasonal hiring and investments in facilities and processing capabilities.
Announcement said the USPS plans to hire some 14,000 seasonal employees to “complement the full-time employee base and better position the Postal Service to handle the extra holiday volume in key locations throughout the nation.” That number is down from the expected 40,000 in prior recent years and in part reflects the initiative over that time to convert more pre-career employees to full-time status.
In recent years, the USPS said, it also:
“has expanded its daily package processing capacity by adding 614 state-of-the-art package sorting machines over the past five years, including 94 installed this year alone. The machines have automated scanning capabilities that ensure tracking visibility for our customers as packages move through the postal system.”
“has opened nine regional processing and distribution centers, known as RPDCs; 19 regional transfer hubs, known as RTHs; 17 local processing centers, known as LPCs; and 133 sorting and delivery centers or S&DCs — all to ensure the space needed to not only process additional holiday volume but to better serve customers year-round.”
“As in years past, the Postal Service will also prioritize morning parcel delivery, enhanced scanning technology and extended retail and pick-up delivery hours at popular Post Office locations,” it said.
An inspector general report issued in July said that Postal Service has opportunities to improve its planning for peak season. It cited issues including that increased package volume in 2024 required the USPS to purchase extra transportation to move mail from over-capacity processing facilities and over-filled planes. It also stressed continuing peak season initiatives for weeks beyond the holidays since package volume remains high because of returns.
That report for example said that compared with the prior peak season, on-time performance in the First Class Mail Composite category was 79.2 percent, compared with the target of 88 percent and the prior year’s performance of 83.1 percent. Marketing mail and periodicals also fell below both their targets and the prior year’s performance. Meanwhile, performance for Ground Advantage improved but performance declined for Priority Mail, although the goals and actual percentages were redacted, while no data were provided for Parcel Select.
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