US Postal Service update

The postal service in Georgia is under a state of delay, which means all letters and packages will be delayed tremendously because letters/packages are not scanned on the day of drop off. In many instances, outgoing mail processing will move hundreds of miles to a regional facility, outside reasonable commuting distance and, in some cases, to another state entirely.

The Swainsboro Post Office is no longer a hub, meaning when mail is dropped off at the Swainsboro Post Office, it is sent to Macon, then to Atlanta, then back to Macon and sorted to be put on delivery trucks to be sent to the Post Office it’s supposed to go to, to be delivered.

Per Tyisha Fernandes, WSB-TV 2 Atlanta, on Wednesday, March 13, at 7:48 a.m., a new U.S. Postal Service facility that was built to make things more efficient is being blamed for causing major mail issues. NewsChopper 2 flew over the Regional Postal Distribution Center in Palmetto, GA on Tuesday, March 12. The facility is supposed to constantly have trucks moving in and out, but NewsChopper 2 and NewsDrone 2 both got a bird’s eye view of just how many trucks were sitting still at the facility, and it was dozens. Each of those trucks is full of mail that is meant to be taken to your home. Fernandes spoke with a Postal Workers Union president who said he knows exactly what the problem is and what it will take to keep drivers moving. “They’re supposed to stay there for 30 minutes and be gone, they’re staying there for four hours. So when they go there, it pretty much ends their route,” Mitchell Taylor, President of the American Postal Workers Union stated. He says all the major problems in metro Atlanta stem from the new facility that opened three weeks ago. “What they did was they moved machines and mail and a lot of operations down to the RPDC (Regional Processing and Distribution Centers)…it left a void where they’re saying we don’t need these people here, we need to move them elsewhere,” he explained. “You would think that would make it more efficient. The void that they left behind was so great, that they don’t have enough people left behind to do the mail working the mail.” He said supervisors had to step in, but they’re not used to doing certain jobs and are slowing down operations. Taylor said the new facility has nearly 200 dock doors to get trucks in and out quickly, but it’s still not enough. “We never thought that would be up to capacity, but every day all the dock doors are full and you still can’t get trucks in or out,” he said.

This is not only affecting our Forest-Blade subscribers – it’s affecting everybody. Please bear with us and hopefully these issues will be cleared up soon! If you do not receive your Forest-Blade, please call us at 478.237.9971.

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