Dive Brief:
- The U.S. Postal Service will launch 10 new sorting and delivery centers on Sept. 6, and one more will open Oct. 18, the agency announced in an Aug. 11 industry bulletin.
- The openings include locations in Baltimore and Charlotte, North Carolina. The large-scale facilities consolidate work previously handled by delivery units, the last stop for mail and packages before they are delivered to end customers.
- The bulletin advised commercial customers to bring packages and flat bundles for drop shipment at the sorting and delivery centers serving the ZIP codes for a package’s final destination.
Upcoming USPS sorting and delivery center launches
| Location | Opening date | ZIP codes served |
|---|---|---|
| Martinsburg, West Virginia | Sept. 6 | 25401-25405 |
| Rochester, Minnesota | Sept. 6 | 55901-55903, 55905, 55920 |
| Sioux Falls, South Dakota | Sept. 6 | 57101, 57103, 57104, 57107, 57110, 57117, 57186, 57193, 57198 |
| Springfield, Missouri | Sept. 6 | 65807, 65810 |
| Texarkana, Texas | Sept. 6 | 71857, 75501, 75503, 75505, 75569, 75599 |
| Baltimore, Maryland | Sept. 6 | 21201, 21202, 21229, 21231 |
| Bloomington, Indiana | Sept. 6 | 47403-47406, 47429, 47468 |
| Johnson City, Tennessee | Sept. 6 | 37601, 37602, 37604, 37605, 37614, 37615 |
| Watertown, New York | Sept. 6 | 13145, 13601, 13603, 13606, 13612, 13616, 13622, 13634, 13636, 13637, 13657, 13671, 13682, 13685, 13693 |
| Woodbridge, Virginia | Sept. 6 | 22025, 22026, 22134, 22135, 22192, 22193, 22195 |
| Charlotte, North Carolina | Oct. 18 | 28208, 28214, 28217 |
Source: U.S. Postal Service
Dive Insight:
Growing the footprint of sorting and delivery centers is a key goal in the agency's "Delivering for America" overhaul plan. As of May 5, the Postal Service had opened 96 sorting and delivery centers since 2022, with plans to open around 300 more in the next few years.
"The Postal Service has targeted key markets where it is beneficial to aggregate delivery units into fewer, larger, centrally located S&DCs — leveraging both repurposed and new facilities — to simplify the entire network and create a more reliable and efficient Postal Service," the bulletin said.
Lawmakers have scrutinized the Postal Service's network shakeup and its impact on delivery reliability through the years. However, the agency has continued to advance the plan in a bid to improve its shaky financial performance and compete with FedEx and UPS. Delivering for America began under former Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, and new chief David Steiner said earlier this month the plan puts the agency "on the right path."
The latest round of sorting and delivery center launches will come before the peak holiday shipping season kicks into full gear. The Postal Service is planning another round of price hikes for package shipping services in anticipation of a volume spike during that period.
