As Virginia lawmakers continue to press the issue on the state’s mail crisis, Reps. Rob Wittman, R-1st, and Jennifer McClellan, D-4th, toured the U.S. Postal Service Richmond Regional Processing and Distribution Center in Sandston on Friday.
“We are grateful that the Postal Service took the time to show us around the distribution center and let us talk to them about the concerns that we have over mail delivery delays,” McClellan said. “We’ve got a ways to go, but at least they’re being a little more transparent now, and we appreciate that.”
The center, which is undergoing an audit by the Postal Service Inspector General, serves as a centralized hub for outgoing mail and package processing. McClellan said the report is expected “any day now.”
Following her visit, McClellan indicated that the Postal Service has a 90% on-time delivery goal and is currently running in the high 80s. She was not given a time frame for reaching that goal, but said they are “close.”
The visit comes at a time when many people throughout Virginia are figuring out how to pay utility bills and other costs while dealing with an unreliable mail system.
“Those governments, they don’t have the ability to waive late fees or to extend deadlines because state law doesn’t give them that ability,” McClellan said.“We want to make sure that, in particular, that mail is getting delivered on time.”
Friday’s tour of the distribution center comes a month after a February town hall meeting coordinated by U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., which Postal Service administrators declined to attend. Kaine at the time had sought a tour of the Sandston facility. That request had been denied until now.
“I understand you don’t want to bring somebody in when things aren’t going well, when machines aren’t working and those sorts of things,” Wittman said. “But I think it’s critical for us to see things as they are, at the time when we were getting the largest number of complaints.”
The Sandston facility underwent a recent modernization, which included new automated equipment. Both representatives indicated that equipment breakdowns played a role in the center’s struggles.
“Doing that modernization, I think doing everything at once caused some challenges that the other distribution centers did not see,” McClellan said. “I think they’ve learned from some of those mistakes, and we are hoping this is the beginning of a dialogue.”
Wittman said the center’s main carrier went bankrupt in December, which also caused major problems.
During their tour, both members of Congress were briefed on the distribution center’s metrics, numbers and graphics that they had not previously received.
“Getting that level of specificity, that granularity and what happened, when it happened and how it happened, it was the first time we’d gotten that,” Wittman said. “Seeing how incredibly big the place is, how big the operations are and understanding the magnitude of what they face really kind of put it in perspective.”
McClellan said her constituents have complained not just about the mail being late, but how late the mail is arriving. She and her colleagues have asked the Postal Service for specific metrics on how late the mail has been on average, but have not been given that information.
Kaine was unable to make it to Friday’s tour due to the pending Senate spending bill vote to avoid a partial government shutdown, but he has been a vocal advocate for people dealing with mail problems.
“I will continue to hold USPS accountable for the unreliable service they have provided to Virginians, and urge them to implement effective solutions,” Kaine said in a statement.
Last week, Kaine, McClellan, Wittman and others sent a letter to the Inspector General that included stories of Virginians struggling with mail delivery delays.
Another letter was sent in January expressing concerns about the Richmond Veterans Affairs Medical Center receiving colon cancer tests in the mail late. The delays resulted in unusable tests for hundreds of military veterans.
Wittman and McClellan said they want to see the Postal Service continue to have conversations about the mail process. That includes allowing for further visits to the distribution center, as well as getting out into the community.
“We have implored them to work with our offices, to go to the field with us and talk to people,” Wittman said. “I think that’s the most important thing they can do.”
Reps. Jennifer McClellan, D-4th, and Rob Wittman, R-1st, discuss the U.S. Postal Service outside the Richmond Regional Processing and Distribution Center in Sandston on Friday.
Reps. Jennifer McClellan, D-4th, and Rob Wittman, R-1st, indicated that a recent modernization played a role in the Sandston mail center's struggles. "I think doing everything at once caused some challenges that the other distribution centers did not see," McClellan said.