12/15/2019 Each year, the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) opens its doors to the media for special holiday season tours of select mail processing and distribution centers throughout the United States. These events provide the USPS an opportunity to invite media to meet with local leadership and to experience the fast-paced world of mail processing, where this year, nearly 13 billion letters, cards and packages will be processed and delivered across the U.S., between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day.

As packages have gotten larger, so has the machinery needed to process them. Where size matters, mail processing facilities have transformed the work area to accommodate a behemoth machine to handle and process over-sized parcels. The universal sort system (USS) is a robust, highly automated machine for handling the organization’s growing volume of very large pieces, a result of increased online shopping.

What used to be termed the “busiest mailing day” of the year has morphed into the “busiest week,” all driven by an increase in online retail purchases, which mean packages, bigger packages. More than 200 million packages are expected to be processed and delivered the week of Dec. 16-22, 2019 across the nation.

The final surge will be the week starting December 16, with 28 million packages expected to be handled per day.

The media in Oakland and San Francisco California will have an opportunity to see how the Universal Sort System (USS) works during peak week at both mail processing facilities.
 

 

 

The Oakland mail processing facility is expecting close to 240,000 parcels to be run through the USS machine alone, not counting additional parcels flowing through other automated package processing equipment.

The Oakland Processing & Distribution Center is also equipped with a parcel sorting system (SPSS) to handle smaller packages. In all, more than 78 million cards, letters and packages will flow through the building during the “busiest week”, an increase of close to 4 million pieces from a normal week.

The Bay-Valley postal district is moving packages much faster now that it has the newest in package sorting systems in its Oakland mail processing facility. The USS is specifically designed to handle over-sized packages weighing up to 70 pounds.

The San Francisco Mail Processing and Distribution Center for the week of Dec. 16-22 is projected to handle more than 1.5 million parcels, of which 72, 492 will be over-sized packages on the USS machine.The San Francisco mail processing facility is expected to process more than 227,000 parcels on Monday, Dec. 16, with more than 17,000 over-sized packages run through the USS machine alone.

The USPS has deployed more automated parcel sorting systems when it began to experience a significant growth in package volume, largely driven by increased online consumer spending.

The USPS has the most sophisticated mail processing and delivery network in the world, which has positioned it as the leader in the package delivery business with a 47 percent market share as more shoppers and shippers rely on the Postal Service as the courier of choice because of three key factors – our price, our product, and our performance.

The Postal Service delivers more ecommerce shipments to homes than anyone else, with one notable exception on Christmas Eve.

Oakland and San Francisco mail processing facilities are open to the media on the following dates:

Tuesday, Dec. 17, between 6 p.m. – 7 p.m., offers the best operating window to catch the action of automated parcel sorting in full operation.

Where:

Oakland Processing & Distribution Center
1675 7th Street
Oakland, CA 94615

MEDIA ALERT: For entry into the Oakland mail processing center, contact Eduardo Cuadra (c) 415 260-8694, eduardo.cuadra@usps.gov

Monday, Dec. 16, between 6 p.m. – 7 p.m., offers the best operating window to catch the action of automated parcel sorting in full operation.

Where:
San Francisco Processing & Distribution Center
1300 Evans Street
San Francisco, CA 94188

MEDIA ALERT: For entry into the building, call Kristina Uppal at 415-550-5759, kristina.uppal@usps.gov, or Augustine Ruiz @ 415-640-1447.

 

source: USPS