OIG: Richmond RPDC Still Facing Challenges

A federal watchdog is flagging performance concerns at USPS’s new regional processing and distribution center (RPDC) in Richmond, Virginia.  

The March 28 report from the USPS Office of Inspector General (OIG) identified multiple challenges that decreased service performance in the Richmond area for months. These issues also caused “the Postal Service to incur additional labor and transportation costs, totaling over $8 million in questioned costs over the first four months of operations.”  

Given the higher costs, “it is uncertain if expected savings will be achieved,” according to the report. USPS disagreed with OIG’s calculations of the cost overages.  

One major issue was a lack of transportation planning. While USPS planned to use fewer contractors and more employees post-conversion, the report states that the RPDC “was not able to hire sufficient postal vehicle operators to cover the newly created routes.”  

Significant increases were seen in extra trips, which rose 706 percent from 959 extra trips to 7,730 over 18 weeks. Late trips increased 30 percent (17,478 to 22,770) during the same timeframe and canceled trips increased 185 percent (5,524 to 15,741). Besides that, over 400 trips by contractors were not properly omitted during those initial 18 weeks of operation.  

OIG said that known weaknesses were not corrected before the facility’s conversion, which exacerbated pre-existing issues such as lack of management oversight and service performance.  

In a combined statement, federal and state lawmakers representing Virginia said “USPS must provide more resources and clearer guidance to management and staff at RPDC, among other steps. We look forward to working with USPS to ensure that happens."