Here's a short thread about one of the "ZOMG!" issues getting raised about USPS. "They're removing sorting machines from post offices!"

Yes, they are. In order to improve efficiency. One thing to note is the complaints are coming largely from postal unions including

National Postal Mail Handlers Union and American Postal Workers Union. Mail is more of than not, getting sorted at distribution centers instead of at the local post office. The national president for the NPMH concedes that in this hair on fire CNN piece: https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/13/politics/postal-service-sorting-machines/index.html

One of the new initiatives, when I started at Home Depot, was the Buy Online/Ship to Store program (or BOSS - Corporations love their acronyms!). When it first rolled out, a customer placed an order. Depending on the size of the item, a UPS driver or LTL truck driver would take

the item from a distribution center, directly to the store. Now, this worked, but it also created problems because multiple trucks would show up at stores every day, making a lot more work, having to deal with multiple deliveries. So, we figured out a better way. HD had people

that tracked inventory at stores and would order replacement stock as necessary. Those orders would all convene at what is called a regional RDC (Rapid Deployment Center) where all the orders for one store got loaded on one truck (or two or three, if necessary). So what we did

was have online orders sent to the RDC's, sorted there for each store in that region, and loaded on one truck. This improved. Despite the extra stop, it was more efficient and people got notification their orders were ready for pickup faster than when it was all getting delivered

directly to the store. Because of the decline in overall first-class volume (41% over the last 10-15 years), it makes sense to prioritize sorting at a central hub, especially where volumes are higher than in other parts of the country. This is yet another type of situation in

which a lot of reporters don't have an understanding of how these logistical processes work. Therefore, it is easy to take the information and report the knee-jerk reaction (mostly from those with a vested interest - like postal unions), all to play into the "sabotage" talk.

There are experts all over the country that can speak to USPS processes and how it changed over the last ten years as it deals with decreasing volume of first-class mail and an increase in package delivery. /end