Fischer, Ricketts urge postal officials to maintain North Platte processing center

A reprieve, for now.

On May 13, Sens. Deb Fischer and Pete Ricketts confirmed that U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy confirmed the U. S. Postal Service will pause the movement of mail processing operations, including the processing and distribution center in North Platte.

Ricketts said, “The Postal Service’s primary responsibility is to provide timely and reliable delivery to every community across our country. Modernization plans should improve customer service, not reduce it. I’m glad the postmaster general listened to our call to delay implementation of the changes to the North Platte facility. The voice of rural Nebraskans must not be neglected in future plans.”

Last week, Fischer joined Senate colleagues in sending a letter to the U.S. Postal Service urging the agency to pause planned changes to its processing and delivery network that could slow down mail delivery until the potential impacts are further studied by the Postal Regulatory Commission and addressed by the Postal Service.

This includes a change at the North Platte processing and distribution center.

The letter was led by Sens. Gary Peters, Michigan; Susan Collins, Maine; Jacky Rosen, Nevada; and Cynthia Lummis, Wyoming.

“The USPS ‘modernization’ plan failed to consider the impact on rural communities like North Platte and could have slowed down the very mail service it attempted to modernize, which is why I asked the postmaster general to delay the plan for implementation. For now, no changes should occur at the North Platte facility. This pause should allow more time for the plan and its impact to be studied. I encourage USPS to take the next year to listen to people in communities like North Platte and to incorporate their feedback into any changes that occur after January of 2025,” Fischer said.

Since January, the USPS had discussed a shift in services at the North Platte processing and distribution center.

According to Fischer, on Jan. 10, USPS published a notice that it was conducting a mail processing facility review of its processing operations at the North Platte center.

On March 11, USPS announced its initial results of the facility review, including plans to transfer some mail processing operations to the Denver P&DC in Colorado.

Currently, the North Platte facility processes and distributes all mail in Nebraska west of the city of Cozad to the Wyoming border, north to the South Dakota border, and into portions of northern Kansas.

On Thursday, March 28, USPS held a public meeting to share initial results of the study and allow members of the community to provide additional feedback.

On Tuesday, May 8, USPS announced it will transfer operations of the North Platte Mail P&DC to Denver, and convert the North Platte facility to a local processing center.

The text of the letter reads:

USPS is moving forward swiftly with plans to consolidate and alter its facilities across the country, making irrevocable changes to its processing and delivery network which links all communities. This plan includes moving mail processing further away from local communities, by transferring operations out of local facilities and delivery units and into more distant hubs, regional processing and distribution centers and sorting and delivery centers. The plan also includes “local transportation optimization,” an initiative that cuts the number of truck trips and mail collections at USPS facilities, causing mail to sit overnight in local offices. USPS has begun to implement this change without notifying the public, causing critical delays for mail that requires overnight delivery.

We are concerned about the impacts these changes have had so far, and the potential impacts that further changes could have. In regions where USPS has implemented significant changes, on-time mail delivery has declined. In addition, it is not clear these changes will improve efficiency or costs. Despite these concerns, USPS has moved forward with announcing and approving additional facility changes across the country. The nature of these changes creates concerns that local and rural service could be degraded. For example, USPS proposals to remove all outbound mail operations from local processing facilities seem to particularly harm local mail – since mail sent to a nearby locality would first have to go through a far-away processing facility, often in another state. “Local transportation optimization” has also caused disproportionate impacts on rural areas. In some rural communities, it has eliminated the possibility of overnight delivery for critical mail like medications and laboratory tests. Taken together, these changes have a nationwide scope and would affect service across the country.

We call on USPS to pause all changes, pending a full study of this plan by its regulator. While USPS claims these changes overall will improve service while reducing costs, there is evidence to the contrary in locations where USPS has implemented changes so far. USPS must stop implementation, restore service in those areas where changes were implemented, and fully understand the nationwide effects of its plan on service and communities.

In particular, we urge the Postal Service to request a comprehensive advisory opinion from the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC), which would provide a robust and public process to study the impacts of these changes. The request and analysis must include the full scope of network changes, including the intersecting changes to facilities across the nation (conversions to Regional processing and distribution centers, sorting and delivery centers, and local processing centers) and local transportation optimization. During a hearing before the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, Postmaster General DeJoy stated that USPS would consider requesting an advisory opinion – and suggested that USPS may slow down “mail move” changes in 2024. Disappointingly, the postmaster general did not commit to the scope of an advisory opinion, or to meaningfully stopping changes until further study is complete.

The Postal Service must promptly request a comprehensive Advisory Opinion to study the impacts of its full plan. USPS should pause all changes, including administrative approvals and on-the-ground changes, until the PRC completes this study and USPS incorporates the results. USPS must improve service immediately in areas where changes have been implemented, and restore status quo operations as much as practicable.

The Postal Service’s primary responsibility is to provide timely and reliable delivery to every community across the nation. While USPS must continue adapting as an agency to remain stable and serve the public’s current needs, it must proceed with caution and understand the implications of its plans in order to protect mail delivery for all communities.”