PALMETTO, Ga. — UPDATE: As of Tuesday morning, USPS tells 11Alive the backlog of trucks has been resolved.
A long line of trucks wrapped around Georgia’s regional processing and distribution center Friday morning, as some drivers and employees reported that wait times at the new facility continued to drag on for hours.
11Alive crews captured images on camera after a source inside the Palmetto facility shared that trucks had been lined up overnight. One driver told 11Alive’s Liza Lucas he was making his first trip to the facility, a trip that began at 12:45 a.m. and didn’t conclude until 7:45 a.m.
The facility has had notable issues with long truck waits before. In March, shortly after the facility's opening, 11Alive captured the lines of 18-wheelers along Roosevelt Highway. A recent audit conducted by the USPS Office of Inspector General revealed trucks were waiting around 20 hours to move through the facility at that time.
Such issues are linked to the launch of the regional processing and distribution center (RP&DC). The RP&DC is among the first facilities in the nation and part of the postal service’s 10-year "Delivering for America" plan, a $40 billion effort to streamline postal services and save money.
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Recent data showed the state was the worst in the country for certain deliveries in the most recent fiscal quarter following the facility’s opening; in April, U.S. Senators grilled Postmaster General Louis DeJoy about performance issues in Georgia during a hearing on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on April 16.
“We apologize for the issues that occurred, and the team is working very, very hard," DeJoy told 11Alive in a one-on-one interview in D.C. after the hearing. "I hope that everybody gives us a chance to see these investments pay off."
The postmaster general also later acknowledged the facility's challenges in a letter to Georgia’s congressional delegation, saying, "This activation has been the most complex to date for DFA, and the scale of change is massive."
While First Class delivery times continue to improve in Georgia, residents across the state continue to contact 11Alive regarding mail issues. Palmetto employees also point to problems that could be blamed for ongoing backups.
Earlier this week, USPS confirmed that an issue causing delays with some packages stemmed from problems with one of the facility’s sorters. A facility staff member, who 11Alive is keeping anonymous due to the nature of their job, shared photos of the issue, which apparently show containers of packages that had been rejected by the MaRS system.
“All sorters are going to have rejects for a number of reasons,” the employee stated. “What's unacceptable in this case in that this many packages are sitting and not being processed.”
"We were made aware of an issue that temporarily affected processing packages on our new MaRS system,” Debra Jean Fetterly, USPS spokesperson for the Georgia district, shared in an email. “Once the issue was identified, we immediately implemented corrective measures. While the vast majority of customers received their packages promptly, some packages were delayed. The root causes of the issue were resolved last Wed., Aug. 7, and all packages are being processed expeditiously. We have sufficient staffing and expect to be current this week."
11Alive has circled back to USPS with questions about the Friday truck delays. Meanwhile, Postmaster General DeJoy continues to defend the necessity of the Delivering for America Plan. In an Aug. 8 meeting with the Board of Governors, DeJoy did not mention Georgia but did reference efforts to stabilize and improve service as the agency also works to reduce costs and grow revenue under the DFA plan.
“Our goal was to begin the recovery process to rescue the organization from its devastating past and transform it into a high-performing service provider — enabling both commerce and public service in an extraordinary manner,” DeJoy stated in part. “The path to achieve this goal is not a straight line, does not come without error, and needs to be accomplished in digestible doses, while we race to improve our financial condition and avoid a crisis. We are trying to manage our transformation with this understanding.”
Those experiencing delays or who have not received mail can contact the newsroom with your concerns as we continue to cover this story. Fill out our online form below, and someone from our news team will follow up with you.