USPS Last Minute Network Changes

Mailers Hub Article January 1, 2024 By Leo Raymond

As announced in a December 26 Industry Alert, the Postal Service opened a new regional processing and distribution center on December 30.? The new Charlotte RPDC – actually located in Gastonia – is about 10 miles west of the Mid-Carolinas P&DC which the announcement said would be closing as of December 29.

As usual, the USPS has released little detail of which, if any, other facilities’ operations may be consolidated into the RPDC, but the new 625,000 square foot leased building may also absorb operations from not only the Mid-Carolina P&DC but from the Charlotte P&DC, Asheville P&DC, and the Mid-Carolina Parcel Support Annex as well.

The new building may also house a Local Processing Center or a Sort & Delivery Center, as does the Richmond (VA) RPDC, but, as noted, the specifics of facility consolidating and repurposing in the Charlotte area have yet to be disclosed.

The most problematic aspect of the announcement was its timing, giving commercial mail producers and logistics service providers a mere three days’ notice to redirect mail.? Not only are mailings prepared, loaded onto vehicles, and dispatched to postal facilities more than three days before deposit, mail direction files and related software needs to be adjusted much earlier so that mailings – such as any being produced earlier in December or even November – could be sorted and labeled as appropriate for the facility changes.

Mailers Hub representatives contacted postal officials responsible for the announcement and for labeling lists and found an apparent lack of information sharing, but no explanation for why the teams responsible for opening the new facility never thought to provide the relevant information to mail producers (and vendors) in a timelier manner.

Concerns expressed over the minimal redirection notice started a flurry of belated discussions at USPS HQ as the several functional groups involved tried to address mailer issues without derailing the RPDC startup timeline.? As a result, another Industry Alert the next day announced a grace period to allow already scheduled drop shipments to be deposited at the Mid-Carolina P&DC, but only through January 12.

While that respite was welcome, it addressed only part of the problem.

The mail direction file and labeling lists that mail producers must follow to sort and label mail, and deposit mailings at the correct facility, were not revised until December 27th with only an email going out to FAST users, in anticipation of the redirections associated with the RPDC opening.? As a result, mailings were, and continue to be produced based on a mail direction file and labeling lists that are no longer correct because proper alerts have not notified other mailers.

Allowing a grace period for mail deposit does nothing to relieve mail producers for “errors” in mail preparation based on USPS information that was not timely updated.

The whole kerfuffle was like a game of hot potato.? As headquarters staff and functional groups became aware of the problem, their responses revealed not only a lack of communication with the mailing community, but among the groups themselves.? If information about the RPDC activation timeline was available internally, it not only didn’t get to the right people, there apparently was no coordination to assure that, for example, the mail direction file and labeling lists were updated and published sufficiently in advance before the industry was told of the facility changes.

Moreover, if the several organizational silos in HQ each did what they believed was their job as part of the RPDC activation, none now wanted to be at fault for the conspicuous lack of coordination.

Overarching that is the organization’s failure to keep its assurances of timely notice.? In meetings with MTAC leadership, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy himself stated that at least thirty days’ notice would be given for any facility moves, and that none would occur during the holiday “peak” season – which most would agree runs through early January.? Moreover, after other episodes of errors in the mail direction file and labeling lists earlier this year – also caused by a lack of internal communication and coordination at USPS HQ – MTAC leadership was assured that quality control steps would be implemented to prevent a recurrence.