Birmingham Postal Annex gets new technology to help with vacation packages

By Judy J. Beasley Last updated Oct 28, 2021

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama (WBRC) – Over nine million packages passed through the Birmingham Post Office Annex last season, but due to big delays some of your gifts never made it under the tree. But, USPS is now adding more technology.

“That’s a lot more processing power than we had now,” said Gregory Curtis, acting plant manager in Birmingham. “The machine runs around 3,000 packages per hour, compared to 250 manually packages per hour. “

The annex has new technology which is an automated parcel sorter. USPS spokeswoman Debra Jean Fetterly said the Postal Service is modernizing its operations to meet growing customer demand for parcel delivery. They have installed 112 parcel sorters across the country. Fetterly said this is in preparation for the 2021 holiday season.

“The Postal Service is already making service improvements at all levels,” Fetterly said. “We are well prepared to handle peak vacation volume and provide our customers with the exceptional service they expect and deserve this holiday season and beyond. “

“Handling it manually obviously slows down the process and it takes a lot longer,” Curtis said. “So having a machine simplifies the process and allows mail to move much more efficiently through our building. We will not have a backlog and we will not be as crowded as we have been. “

Curtis said that with these new machines, they expect the peak holiday season to go smoothly.

“At peak, we’ll be working on this facility 24 hours a day, running the machines for about 20 hours a day, and we’ll have about 150 people.”

“The deployment of the parcel sorter is part of our 10-year ‘Delivering for America’ plan which includes a $ 40 million investment in people, equipment and technology,” said Fetterly.

There are three machines in Birmingham that will help with the sorting. But, Curtis said they’ll still have manual sorting as well.

Curtis said he also added a new sorting machine to the Huntsville facility to help improve shipping statewide.

“We are looking forward to the holiday season,” he said. “I don’t think we’re going to have any problems here in Birmingham.”

With automated sorting, Curtis said you shouldn’t have to speed up your vacation shopping. You can order online and ship as soon as you are ready.

“Whether they order early or as they normally do over the past two seasons, we’ll be ready for them,” Curtis said. “We have enough processing power; we can handle the volume.

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