Dive Brief:
- The U.S. Postal Service plans to launch 14 sorting and delivery centers on Nov. 1, including seven in California, the agency announced in an industry bulletin.
- The large-scale facilities will aggregate work previously handled by delivery units within their areas. Delivery units are the final stop for packages and mail before the Postal Service delivers them to end customers.
- The Postal Service currently has Post Office locations at the planned launch sites, per the agency’s website. However, the conversion to sorting and delivery centers will not result in any Post Office closures or changes to retail or PO Box delivery services, according to the industry bulletin.
USPS sorting and delivery center launches on Nov. 1
| Location | ZIP codes served |
|---|---|
| Aurora, Illinois | 60502 - 60507, 60568 |
| Columbia, Maryland | 21044 - 21046 |
| Hayward, California | 94540 - 94542, 94544, 94545 |
| Inglewood, California | 90301 - 90305 |
| Lancaster, Pennsylvania | 17601 - 17603 |
| Murrieta, California | 92562, 92563, 92596 |
| Newport Beach, California | 92625, 92657, 92658, 92660 - 92663 |
| Reading, Pennsylvania | 19601, 19604, 19605, 19610 - 19612 |
| Spring, Texas | 77381, 77382, 77393 |
| Stamford, Connecticut | 06820, 06840, 06903, 06905 - 06907, 06912, 06926 |
| Sunnyvale, California | 94086 - 94089 |
| Torrance, California | 90501 - 90503, 90505, 90506, 90509, 90510 |
| Walnut Creek, California | 94595 - 94598 |
| York, Pennsylvania | 17315, 17401, 17403, 17404, 17408 |
Source: U.S. Postal Service
Dive Insight:
Establishing more sorting and delivery centers is a key component of the Postal Service's 10-year "Delivering for America" overhaul plan, which continues to advance under recently appointed Postmaster General David Steiner. The agency wants to strengthen its processing and delivery network to boost service, reduce costs and compete more effectively against FedEx and UPS.
The agency has opened dozens of such facilities since 2022. Last month, it added 10 new sorting and delivery centers to its roster, including one in Baltimore. In announcing the openings, the agency said it "has targeted key markets" in which consolidating delivery unit activity would increase its reliability and efficiency.
For the November launches, the agency advised commercial shippers to bring packages and flat bundles for drop shipment to the sorting and delivery centers covering the ZIP codes for a package's destination address.
In addition to opening new facilities, the Postal Service is pushing to increase throughput at existing locations via technology upgrades. The agency is installing new equipment — parallel induction linear sorters — at six processing facilities throughout the country, according to an Oct. 3 announcement. The Postal Service is slated to complete the sorter installations for all sites by Nov. 20.
The sorter picks up containers of parcels and unloads them onto a conveyor belt, which then feeds the volume onto a conveyor system, the Postal Service said in an Aug. 4 news release.
"This machine can process 7,000 packages an hour, an increase from the 3,500 packages an hour the currently used single induction package sorters are capable of," according to the release.
