The first RPDC to be audited, the Richmond facility’s issues led to additional labor and transportation costs totaling over $8 million in questioned costs.
by Martin Davis
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Virginia’s Senate and House representatives set aside their policy disputes to issue a statement on Monday about the recently completed audit of the Richmond, Virginia, Regional Processing and Distribution Center (RP&DC).
The audit is significant for several reasons. As part of its 10-year effort to update its mail and package processing system, the U.S. Postal Service plans to develop 60 RP&DCs across the county for creating a “modernized network based around [RPDCs], local processing centers, and sorting and delivery centers.” Richmond was the first to become an RP&DC in July 2023.
The results were disappointing, but hardly unexpected by Rep. Abigail Spanberger and the other Virginia elected officials – U.S. Senators Tim Kaine (D-VA) and Mark Warner (D-VA) and U.S. Representatives Jennifer McClellan (D-VA-04), Bobby Scott (D-VA-03), Rob Wittman (R-VA-01), Bob Good (R-VA-05), and Jen Kiggans (R-VA-02) – who signed the letter.
“It couldn’t be clearer that USPS has not been providing reliable service to Virginians, and we’ve been pressing for answers. This report pinpoints a number of issues, including a lack of coordination between USPS and staff at the Richmond Regional Processing and Distribution Center,” they wrote in a press release.
The audit identified a number of issues:
We made 10 recommendations to management that include: continuing to identify and address issues post launch; developing procedures to mitigate challenges before launch; coordinating the training for local managers to understand roles and responsibilities, engagement, leadership, and adequate supervision of operations; adopting a service performance measure of success; aligning and validating transportation schedules; recovering overpayments; establishing a process to communicate and solicit feedback from all local managers in the RP&DC region; updating its Mail Processing Facility Review policy; and communicating impacts to communities when moving processing operations for an entire 3-digit ZIP Code to another facility
Moving forward, the audit plans to implement these changes recommended so that it come move forward with its 10-year plan to improve delivery services.
