The U.S. Postal Service announced a number of measures aimed at addressing peak season surges later this year, after the USPS got buried in a deluge of holiday parcels in November and December, many of them handed off from UPS and FedEx and their maxed-out networks.
The plan calls for adding 138 new package sorters in time for peak season, while additional processing machines and advanced material handling equipment will be purchased over the next 18 months as package volume grows. In March, USPS reported that customer demand for package deliveries rose 28% vs. the prior year.
USPS also plans to lease an additional 45 annex facilities located near processing centers in key locations to support package surges and overflows.
Lastly, the USPS will relocate or remove unnecessary letter and flat sorting equipment at 18 of its facilities to make room for more package sorting equipment by November, an initiative that was put on hold in 2015.