by Jackie Nunnery –
It has been two years since the United States Postal Service (USPS) launched Delivering for America, what it calls a “10-year plan to achieve financial sustainability and service excellence” through massive capital investments — $40 billion over 10 years — and recent rate hikes.
In its quest for efficiency of time and money, the USPS is looking to have fewer, fuller trucks on the road, much like the consolidation of routes in the airline industry. So just as there are an increasing number of airport layovers to get to your final destination, your mail may have more stops along its route, and in all likelihood take longer to reach your mailbox.
Previously, local mail could be dropped at individual post offices where it was sorted with other mail prior to delivery, a “disaggregated” and “haphazard” process that “created substantial workarounds and gross inefficiencies,” according to Postmaster General Louis DeJoy. Now plans call for newspapers (periodicals), along with all other mail, to instead go from the Richmond Processing and Distribution Center (PDC) to the Brook Road transfer facility before returning to the local post office for home delivery.
Speaking at the National Postal Forum in May, DeJoy said “dramatic change” is necessary to “unwind years of outdated bureaucratic policies and processes.” Part of the change is the recent introduction of Sorting and Delivery Centers (S&DC) in some markets, including Richmond, where all mail for a service area will go to be processed by machine and carriers. DeJoy said the change will move mail more efficiently and cost effectively since trucks will be full. “Our transportation processes were sloppy, creating 50,000 truck trips a day that were roughly 70% empty,” he said.
This triangle of a delivery system, Richmond PDC to the Brook Road transfer facility to the local post office, along with a move toward single drop-offs and pick-ups at a post office each day, may simplify the process for the USPS, but it is adding time for those concerned about the timeliness of certain mail like medications, bills, and of course, your local newspaper.
This is not the first time the delivery of periodicals by the USPS has undergone delays. In 2021 pandemic-related delays exacerbated problems with the Richmond PDC, ultimately affecting all categories of mail. In 2022, problems with a highway contract route (HCR) vendor change left Rappahannock Record subscribers in Northumberland County without Thursday papers. The HCR truck service was eventually reinstated.
Now, however, that route and multiple others delivering the Rappahannock Record and the Southside Sentinel have been changed in an attempt to gain full truck loads, all going to the Richmond area for sorting. For instance, papers previously mailed in Urbanna on Thursday morning are no longer being delivered the same day to Deltaville by the USPS. They go to the Richmond sorting centers instead.
Maria Hedetniemi-Martello, circulation manager of the Southside Sentinel, and Michelle Smith, circulation manager of the Rappahannock Record, have concerns that papers could be waiting several days at sorting locations while the USPS waits for full trucks. They are coordinating “in-house” delivery to local post offices to ensure as timely a delivery of the paper as possible.
For the Sentinel, all Middlesex County post offices are getting Thursday deliveries, but some nearby areas within the Southside Sentinel distribution list will likely be impacted by the new USPS policies. These include:
- • Gloucester and Mathews counties.
- • West Point.
- • Shacklefords.
- • Mattaponi.
- • Mascot.
- • Little Plymouth.
Delivery times to non-local subscribers have already been affected.
Kate Oliver, business manager for the Sentinel and Record, said the added deliveries combined with two recent increases in postal rates “would likely result in increased subscription rates.”
In part because of longtime postal delivery problems among out-of-area subscribers, the Record and the Sentinel each established online e-Editions several years ago. “We know most of our subscribers still look forward to holding the papers in their hands, but if mail delays become unbearable, the e-Editions are available,” said Publisher Fred Gaskins.
(Jackie Nunnery is a reporter for the Rappahannock Record in Kilmarnock. Michelle Smith and Maria Hedetniemi-Martello assisted with the preparation of this story.)
