(NBC) The U.S. Postal Service is announcing big plans to add new facilities and extra staffing to deal with the holiday season crush. It comes as both consumers and businesses nationwide are dealing with crippling supply chain issues.
Monday morning, the nation’s mail system is making a major push to deliver packages on time this holiday season. The United States Postal Service announced plans to add:
- 45 new facilities
- 112 new mail sorting machines
- 40,000 additional seasonal workers.
All of it in an effort to handle more than 50 million packages a day. That’s a 35 percent increase from last year. It’s a big goal for the postal service which has been plagued by delays throughout the pandemic.
Amazon, FedEx and UPS are also hiring thousands of seasonal workers to deal with the expected record holiday rush. But some small business owners are questioning whether it will be enough to offset major supply chain issues.
Thea Brown is the owner of a popular toy store in Richmond, Virginia. She said, “I am worried that we might have to disappoint some people not only this holiday, but it’s not going to magically go away at the first of the year.”
From ports to trucks to warehouses; labor shortages, lack of capacity and congestion are wreaking havoc on a supply chain still recovering from pandemic shutdowns. And over the weekend, a disaster happened when 40 containers fell into the Pacific Ocean when a ship was hit by rough seas off the coast of Washington State. Later, containers on that same cargo ship, including two carrying hazardous materials, caught fire onboard, according to the Canadian Coast Guard. The incident is just another disruption to the ongoing global jam.
Here in the U.S., Florida’s Republican Governor Ron DeSantis is suggesting container ships re-route to Florida ports to help alleviate the strain on California ports.
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