According to a recent review by the agency’s Office of Inspector General, the USPS may not have all the tools in place to manage what is likely to be another flood of peak-season shipments (OIG).
The Postal Service had leased 40 of the 70 temporary annexes that it expects to be up and to operate to process Christmas shipments as of late October, according to the report, which was published Nov. 19. Furthermore, as of late October, the Postal Service has not yet installed all 89 package-sorting machines at its processing centers, leaving it five units short.
According to the Postal Service, the remaining devices should be deployed later this month. According to the OIG investigation, all 23 computers ordered for the Postal Service’s delivery units have been installed.
The possibility of labor shortages would be more alarming than any equipment shortages. According to the report, the Postal Service may have difficulty filling 45,000 temporary holiday positions due to an acute and continuous staff shortage. According to the OIG, a statewide scarcity of commercial truck drivers might leave the agency without appropriate surface transportation capacity. 26 executives from postal logistics and processing divisions polled for the research expressed concerns about available surface transportation capacity.
The executives expressed their confidence that the agency would deliver peak-season goods and mail on schedule despite the difficulties. The executives’ confidence in their ability to get sufficient surface transportation capacity was the only area they had reservations.
According to the report, the Postal Service had improved its peak-season readiness since last year’s holiday season, when parcel and mail delivery performance suffered from unprecedented volume spikes, fewer employees, and unexpected transportation challenges as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, which was raging across the country at the time.
To avoid a repeat of last year’s disaster, the Postal Service made several permanent operational modifications, including a strategy to staff up for peak season year-round rather than just before the holidays. Since January, the Postal Service has hired 33,000 personnel to help meet peak staffing needs.
Rather than being deployed during the peak season, facility space was brought online throughout the year. As a result, the number of full-time employees has increased by 8%, facility floor area has increased by 48%, and package processing capacity has increased by 16% above last year’s high, according to the OIG report.
According to the study, the Postal Service has also boosted air transport capacity by 12% from last year’s peak. The division executives polled for the report were quite upbeat about the air network’s Christmas performance prospects.
The Postal Service anticipates handling 850 million to 950 million shipments this month. The previous year’s figure was 925 million. The agency expanded its Sunday delivery service on Nov. 28. Itit aims to deliver more than 9.7 million packages every Sunday during the holiday season.
