USPS says feds approved of Tacoma mail-sorting machines going back on
Aug 26, 2020, 12:24 PM
As the federal government is ordering mail-sorting machines to be disconnected across the country, several decommissioned machines at a Tacoma processing facility have gone back into use.
The U.S. Postal Service said those machines were turned back on in anticipation of increasing amounts mail during the election and the following holiday season. The Tacoma facility serves residents down to the Oregon border and out to the coast.
“The plan at this point is to leave them in operation — nothing will happen prior to the November 3rd election, but management will continue to monitor the amount of mail we’re getting and the need for those machines,” said Ernie Swanson, a communications specialist for the Washington region of the USPS.
Tacoma, Wenatchee postal workers go against USPS orders, reinstall sorting machines
Swanson said despite orders from the Trump administration to leave mail-sorting machines turned off around the country, the federal government was fully aware of the decision to bring the Tacoma machines back into commission.
“The decision to do it had to be approved at Postal Service headquarters [in Washington, D.C.], and so the management at the Tacoma processing facility coordinated that with headquarters,” he said. “It was certainly done with full approval.”
He said such machines have been brought offline because fewer people are sending mail over the past few years, especially during the pandemic. Although people have been staying home and not seeing friends these past several months, it does not appear that many of them have been staying in touch through handwritten letters.
“Our First Class mail volume has been declining for several years, initially because of increased activity on the internet — people buying things online, corresponding online, sending greetings online, that sort of thing,” Swanson said. “And then when the pandemic hit here a few months ago, that has caused another decline in our letter mail. So we’ll have to watch to see what the trends are.”
Swanson says finances did not come into play, as the mail-sorting machines are not especially costly to run.
He said additional machines throughout the state may be put back online as postal service use increases. This would be a local decision based on each particular plant.
“Each of these processing centers has more than one of these machines, so it’s not like we’re taking that automated system out of any particular location,” Swanson said. “The decision to bring machines back would have to be made over a period of time — we’ll just have to watch the volume trends.”
State Attorney General Bob Ferguson announced last week he has filed a lawsuit with 13 other states against the federal government over its actions with the U.S. Postal Service, including “eliminating staff overtime, halting outgoing mail processing at state distribution centers and removing critical mail sorting equipment.”
Swanson said that nothing has changed, and he hopes people will have faith in the USPS.
“We want to continue to assure our customers that we’re prepared to provide the usual high level of postal service they’re accustomed to,” Swanson said. “All this talk about removing machines and collection boxes and so on — we’re fully capable of doing those sort of things and still meeting deadlines, schedules, and deliveries.”
