WAVY: Lost in the mail: Richmond postal service plant fails to deliver

WAVY, REGINA MOBLEY & JIMMY LAROUE

Inspectors say they found water-damaged mail that went unprocessed for months, and a mail handler who was asleep at the wheel of a forklift after touring a postal service plant near Richmond, where mail is processed for delivery to Hampton Roads.

Those were just two of a number of problems revealed in a recent inspector general report, which highlighted “many challenges” for the U.S. Postal Service in implementing a consolidated regional processing and distribution center.

The facility, which opened in July, also faced millions in increased costs and “a decrease in service performance.”

A bipartisan group of Virginia legislators, including Virginia Democratic Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, along with Reps. Bobby Scott (D), Jen Kiggans (R), Jennifer McClellan (D), Rob Wittman (R), Abigail Spanberger (D) and Bob Good (R), said in a joint statement that “it couldn’t be clearer that USPS has not been providing reliable service to Virginians, and we’ve been pressing for answers.”