USPS representative shows embattled Missouri City facility in tour | Houston Public Media

The United States Postal Service provided a media tour Thursday of its new processing center in Missouri City after residents in the Houston area experienced mail delays earlier this year.

Medications, wedding dresses and other packages were often weeks late. And Houston-area representatives of Congress were mediating between residents and the postal service for most of the delays.

John DiPeri, the vice president for regional processing operations in USPS’ western processing region, led reporters throughout the South Houston Local Processing Center (LPC) in Missouri City. DiPeri said he wanted to be in town when the tour happened.

“There’s been major construction going on, a lot of equipment going in, a lot of cement work going in, a lot of planning,” he said. “So we wanted to bring it in when it was safe enough to bring a crew in, it was organized to where we could bring in and show you a good tour.”

A press release from the postal service states the South Houston facility officially opened for operations in late March. An audit released last month found the same facility was opened in November with temporary staff for a “peak season annex.” The same audit found more than 380,000 delayed parcels during an inspection in January.

DiPeri said Houston-area residents saw mail delays earlier this year because of new technology and the construction happening at the facility.

“We learned that we need to be precise in our planning, have better communications, have well-trained people, and have better communications with our suppliers, and understand the supply chain better,” DiPeri said.

The Delivering for America plan is a 10-year initiative the postal service has been working on to increase efficiency. Part of the plan included replacing some of the machinery at the South Houston facility with newer mail sorters. Local leaders found out in a meeting with the National Association with Postal Supervisors that there were also staffing shortages and transportation issues.

“I apologize for that poor service that we had in the beginning of the year,” DiPeri said. “Our jobs are to collect, process, and deliver the mail and we take that really seriously. So we have brought the right people, the right leaders, right leadership, right employees … to assure as we’re going through this modernization we’ll maintain a service and efficiency.”

DiPeri said since January, over 100 employees have been added to work at the processing center. Construction and modernization is expected to continue until mid-August, when 500 people will be working at the building.