U.S. Postal Service is investigating the possibility of closing Waco’s mail sorting plant

Waco leaders, residents and veterans spent several years trying to convince Veterans Affairs officials to not close the Waco VA Medical Center.

Now the U.S. Postal Service is investigating the possibility of closing Waco’s mail sorting plant, a move that could cost the jobs of up to 240 processing clerks while worsening local mail service.

Postal officials must not allow a deterioration of local mail service.

It’s difficult to imagine how trucking the daily average of 326,000 pieces of mail in the Waco processing plant to Austin and Fort Worth could improve pickup and delivery services for Waco customers.

If a Waco resident or business simply wanted to mail a bill or letter across town, the USPS consolidation plan being studied would have all local mail taken first to Austin or Fort Worth for processing before being trucked back to Waco for local delivery.
Postal service officials announced they had begun a study to maximize mail delivery efficiency and cost savings by consolidating the Waco plant’s operations in January 2006.

The postal service has conducted 52 similar consolidation studies across the country since 2004. Nine of those studies resulted in consolidations, 30 were canceled and 13 are ongoing.

Earlier this year, consolidation studies in Bryan and McAllen were halted after postal officials determined it would negatively impact service quality.

Besides handling local mail, the Waco processing center distributes mail in 124 Central Texas cities, from Italy to the north, Jarrell to the south, Hamilton to the west and Kosse to the east.

The study underway is designed to address shifts in volumes of the first-, second- and third-class mail the facility processes.

The postal service has a statutory monopoly on non-urgent first-class mail. In recent years, first-class mail volume has been dropping, forcing postal authorities to search for ways to cut costs.