Virginia lawmakers met with U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy today to discuss the severe mail delays affecting communities in Virginia and the related implementation of new reforms by the United States Postal Service (USPS).
U.S. Sens. Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine, and Reps. Jennifer McClellan and Rob Wittman met with DeJoy after a report by the USPS Inspector General (IG) on the Richmond Regional Processing and Distribution Center (RPDC) in Sandston – the first consolidated processing center in the country that was opened to centralize outgoing mail and package processing as part of USPS’s 10-year Delivering for America plan. The report highlighted various issues on the local, regional and national levels that have impacted service in Virginia. The issues include an egregious lack of attention to detail (pieces of mail falling off conveyor belts and being lost), poor synchronizing between machines processing mail at the facility and the trucks transporting mail to and from the facility, and broader questions about whether the RPDC model is generating the promised cost savings and efficiency improvements.
“Today, we met with Postmaster DeJoy for a productive conversation and voiced what we’ve been hearing for months: mail delivery in the Commonwealth is falling short for Virginians who rely on it. It was encouraging to hear the postmaster accept responsibility for the problems, share data about recent improvement, and pledge to make the Richmond Distribution Center a top-notch performer in necessary postal reforms. But it’s clear that USPS has a long way to go in regaining the trust of Virginians. This meeting is just the beginning and we will continue to press for increased transparency, greater engagement with the public, and a higher standard of service for the communities it serves,” the lawmakers said in a statement today.
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Rebecca Barnabi
