USPS officials and business insiders state sorters are taken offline annually, though the 671 earmarked represent a substantially larger share of their agency's inventory. Of particular concern was the elimination of hundreds of mail-sorting machines.
In accordance with a grievance filed by the American Postal Workers Union and acquired by The Washington Post, the Postal Service has been poised to decommission 671 of those enormous machines, about 10% of its stock, and effective at exporting 21.4 million pieces of paper mail per hour. The Postal Service, by comparison, processes up to 500 million items every day.
But Postal Service officials and industry insiders say the removals were part of a long-term plan, one which reflects Americans' decreasing use for letters and rising reliance on package delivery. The removals correlated closely with population: States with more people and, hence, a larger USPS footprint had more machines removed. Alaska is the only state without the machines on the list.
According to data provided by the marriage, 618 of the 671 machines have been disconnected by Aug. 1.
While the Postmaster General's statement gave no sign whether previously disconnected machines were to be reinstated, emails obtained by The Washington Post reveal that Kevin Couch, a manager of maintenance operations in the USPS, sent word into the bureau's maintenance managers on Tuesday afternoon which"they are to not reconnect/reinstall machines which have been disconnected without consent from HQ Maintenance, regardless of what direction they are getting from their plant manager."
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, after talking with DeJoy on Wednesday, explained in a statement that he"honestly admitted that he had no intention of substituting the sorting machines, gloomy mailboxes and other crucial mail infrastructure which have been removed." Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, meanwhile, has asked the postmaster general for a"special, written record" that itemized the ramifications of DeJoy's decision and if machines would be reinstated.
In Grand Rapids, Mich., reporter Heather Walker with WOOD-TV said that sorting machines were still being hammered at Wednesday morning, but the work had stopped by the day.
Data printed in USPS reports filed yearly to the Postal Regulatory Commission show that the agency typically decommissions dozens, sometimes hundreds, of machines every year. However, they also show that this year's reductions in sorting capacity are larger than they had been in prior years. In 2019, it was 5%, or 186 machines. The 671 on this year's record amounted to about 13 percent.
The agency"routinely moves gear around its network as necessary to match changing package and mail volumes," the Postal Service said in a statement.
The machines can label and sort thousands of letters, bills and ballots, each hour. They include:
Facer Canceller Systems, which label incoming email with bar codes that allow workers to track items through processing.
Bar Code Sorters, one of the most frequent machines, sort labeled letter-size email into Zip codes as well as into delivery sequence for letter carriers.
The Flat Sorting Machines and Flat Sequencing Machines, or FSS's, perform similar tasks on larger-size paper mail, although they have run into trouble. A 2018 report by the Postal Service inspector general discovered a decline in"flat" mail -- paper mail larger than letter-size envelopes -- made it difficult for the agency to hit its goals. Some email handlers also state they locate the expensive machines undependable and prefer to sort flats by hand.
Some postal workers worry that losing a few of the machines may spell flaws.
"Those machines have done more to make efficacy than any other machine in the past couple decades," stated one letter company in Los Angeles, who asked not to be named out of fear of reprisal. "When the email volumes have diminished enough to warrant [removals], then, fine, but you have also generated less room for error if a number of those machines break down.
"And these machines are old," the company said. "I have to imagine you're creating a pretty slim margin for error if you're removing machinesif mail volumes have decreased."
The Postal Service has been streamlining its sorting equipment since the 2000s, when mail volume started to decline. The machine cuts frequently coincide with facility consolidations. The equipment discounts did, but create valuable floor space for package processing.
Mailing teams have hailed the discounts, stating the Postal Service has long held onto excess capacity that's slowed operations and inflated the cost of service.
"As a rule of thumb, our members believe that the Postal Service should be doing everything it can to encourage entry of commercial mail as deep into its network as it may, and to skip postal operations to the highest extent possible," explained Michael Plunkett, president and chief executive of PostCom, a national postal commerce advocacy group. "The longer the Postal Service has to manage it, the longer it remains in the Postal Service and community, then the more costly it is. And frankly, the lower the support quality, the more times the Postal Service has to deal with a piece of mail."
But union officials say the midst of a pandemic is the wrong time to remove gear. Past cuts mean the remaining ones are pressed into service more often and frequently need maintenance that is not always frequently performed.
"I'm constantly hearing from mechanics and technicians throughout the country that they've lower maintenance windows," explained Randy Zelnick, a retired USPS machine technician who conducts the 21st Century Postal Worker blog. "Along with the demands come down to them. The bosses will say,'Get these machines back up and running.' Well, should they let them do the maintenance, it never will have broken . But it's their best to mismanage.
"The sad part is that we have a lot of pride of possession," he added. "We have mechanics that get assigned a few machines, and they like to keep them humming."
In accordance with a grievance filed by the American Postal Workers Union and acquired by The Washington Post, the Postal Service has been poised to decommission 671 of those enormous machines, about 10% of its stock, and effective at exporting 21.4 million pieces of paper mail per hour. The Postal Service, by comparison, processes up to 500 million items every day.
But Postal Service officials and industry insiders say the removals were part of a long-term plan, one which reflects Americans' decreasing use for letters and rising reliance on package delivery. The removals correlated closely with population: States with more people and, hence, a larger USPS footprint had more machines removed. Alaska is the only state without the machines on the list.
According to data provided by the marriage, 618 of the 671 machines have been disconnected by Aug. 1.
While the Postmaster General's statement gave no sign whether previously disconnected machines were to be reinstated, emails obtained by The Washington Post reveal that Kevin Couch, a manager of maintenance operations in the USPS, sent word into the bureau's maintenance managers on Tuesday afternoon which"they are to not reconnect/reinstall machines which have been disconnected without consent from HQ Maintenance, regardless of what direction they are getting from their plant manager."
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, after talking with DeJoy on Wednesday, explained in a statement that he"honestly admitted that he had no intention of substituting the sorting machines, gloomy mailboxes and other crucial mail infrastructure which have been removed." Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, meanwhile, has asked the postmaster general for a"special, written record" that itemized the ramifications of DeJoy's decision and if machines would be reinstated.
In Grand Rapids, Mich., reporter Heather Walker with WOOD-TV said that sorting machines were still being hammered at Wednesday morning, but the work had stopped by the day.
Data printed in USPS reports filed yearly to the Postal Regulatory Commission show that the agency typically decommissions dozens, sometimes hundreds, of machines every year. However, they also show that this year's reductions in sorting capacity are larger than they had been in prior years. In 2019, it was 5%, or 186 machines. The 671 on this year's record amounted to about 13 percent.
The agency"routinely moves gear around its network as necessary to match changing package and mail volumes," the Postal Service said in a statement.
The machines can label and sort thousands of letters, bills and ballots, each hour. They include:
Facer Canceller Systems, which label incoming email with bar codes that allow workers to track items through processing.
Bar Code Sorters, one of the most frequent machines, sort labeled letter-size email into Zip codes as well as into delivery sequence for letter carriers.
The Flat Sorting Machines and Flat Sequencing Machines, or FSS's, perform similar tasks on larger-size paper mail, although they have run into trouble. A 2018 report by the Postal Service inspector general discovered a decline in"flat" mail -- paper mail larger than letter-size envelopes -- made it difficult for the agency to hit its goals. Some email handlers also state they locate the expensive machines undependable and prefer to sort flats by hand.
Some postal workers worry that losing a few of the machines may spell flaws.
"Those machines have done more to make efficacy than any other machine in the past couple decades," stated one letter company in Los Angeles, who asked not to be named out of fear of reprisal. "When the email volumes have diminished enough to warrant [removals], then, fine, but you have also generated less room for error if a number of those machines break down.
"And these machines are old," the company said. "I have to imagine you're creating a pretty slim margin for error if you're removing machinesif mail volumes have decreased."
The Postal Service has been streamlining its sorting equipment since the 2000s, when mail volume started to decline. The machine cuts frequently coincide with facility consolidations. The equipment discounts did, but create valuable floor space for package processing.
Mailing teams have hailed the discounts, stating the Postal Service has long held onto excess capacity that's slowed operations and inflated the cost of service.
"As a rule of thumb, our members believe that the Postal Service should be doing everything it can to encourage entry of commercial mail as deep into its network as it may, and to skip postal operations to the highest extent possible," explained Michael Plunkett, president and chief executive of PostCom, a national postal commerce advocacy group. "The longer the Postal Service has to manage it, the longer it remains in the Postal Service and community, then the more costly it is. And frankly, the lower the support quality, the more times the Postal Service has to deal with a piece of mail."
But union officials say the midst of a pandemic is the wrong time to remove gear. Past cuts mean the remaining ones are pressed into service more often and frequently need maintenance that is not always frequently performed.
"I'm constantly hearing from mechanics and technicians throughout the country that they've lower maintenance windows," explained Randy Zelnick, a retired USPS machine technician who conducts the 21st Century Postal Worker blog. "Along with the demands come down to them. The bosses will say,'Get these machines back up and running.' Well, should they let them do the maintenance, it never will have broken . But it's their best to mismanage.
"The sad part is that we have a lot of pride of possession," he added. "We have mechanics that get assigned a few machines, and they like to keep them humming."