Significant Irregularities Uncovered in Postal Facility Servicing OBX/NENC Mail
An audit has revealed serious issues at the postal facility that is responsible for managing all mail inbound and outbound to northeast North Carolina and the Outer Banks. The Richmond-based processing center has been mired in difficulties, including persistent understaffing, misplaced and lost letters and packages, and a poorly implemented changeover of the site from a local operation to a regional one, the audit by the U.S. Postal Service confirmed.
Looming Issues
The study, which extends to 35 pages, examined the site in Sandston, Virginia, that, in July, had been the first in the country to switch from a local to a regional postal hub. This alteration was part of a decade-long plan by the US postmaster general to modernize the service. However, since the transition took place, residents and businesses across ZIP codes beginning with “279” began complaining about delayed or altogether missing mail. Previously, this mail was processed at a facility in Rocky Mount.
Ongoing Audit and Findings
The USPS inspector general carried out a review of operations at the Henrico County facility during its first four months of operation, between July 29 and December 1, 2023. Inspectors also paid an in-person visit to the site in October. The findings presented in their report, published on Monday, were alarming: A 2022 audit reported understaffing, significant rates of employee absenteeism, sluggish productivity, and inadequate training for existing managers at the Richmond site. Unfortunately, these issues still persisted under the new system, highlighting further organizational weaknesses.
Inspectors observed several instances of Richmond postal staff failing to engage with their work, which also included a member of staff found asleep on a forklift. A poor show of attention to detail resulted in lost mail, packages piled on the floor, and traditional manual sorting methods utilized for “machinable mail.” Some parcels, which had been neglected and left in a container in the truck depot for over two months, were found to be wet. The Priority Express mail was also improperly mixed with packages containing hazardous materials. Further, the USPS did not communicate the transition plan or its flow to local managers effectively.
Impact of the Challenges
As per the inspector general’s report, these challenges racked up additional labor and transportation costs for the Postal Service, amounting to a whopping $8 million in questioned costs across the first four months of operations. What’s more, these issues also led to fallopen service performance for the Richmond region, which continued four months post-launch.
Recommendations and USPS’s Response
The recommendations put forward by the report included the need for ongoing identification and addressing of issues post-launch, the development of procedures to mitigate difficulties before the launch, the coordination of training programs for local managers to understand their roles, responsibilitiessim and adequate supervision of operations. The report also suggested the adoption of a service performance measure of success and the recovery of overpayments.
However, USPS resisted the finding that these changes automatically lead to poor mail delivery. Instead of apologizing or committing to improvements, USPS argued it would only communicate future transitions when required, rebuffing the report’s call for communication about impacts on communities when shifting processing operations for an entire 3-digit ZIP Code to another facility.
