KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — The United States Postal Service is one of the oldest and most important services in the country. It's working to modernize services, and as part of the plan some mail processing services may move from Knoxville, Tennessee, to Louisville, Kentucky.
The ten-year Delivering for America plan aims to improve the USPS' services, spending around $40 billion to improve how mail is handled and delivered across the U.S. A public meeting about the plan is set for Nov. 30 at 3 p.m. at Pellissippi State Community College on Hardin Valley Road.
Prior to the meeting, the USPS reviewed the Knoxville Processing and Distribution Center. The postal carrier said the review supports "the business case for keeping the Knoxville P&DC open and modernizing the facility as a Local Processing Center with simplified processes and standardized layouts."
It also recommended transferring some mail processing operations to the Louisville site. It also said no career employee layoffs would be included in the initiative. However, it also said due to the transfer of some operations, there would be a "net decrease" of 28 craft employees and four managerial positions.
"All bargaining employee reassignments will be made in accordance with the respective collective bargaining agreements," the review said.
Once the initiative is completed, the USPS said it could expect to save up to $6.7 million annually without changing the retail services, business mail acceptance services, or local postmark. It also specified that delivery times to homes and businesses would not change.
However, an employee at USPS said they believed delivery times would be impacted by shifting operations.
"We believe that this move to Louisville will have that negative impact," said Mark Ducharme, a second-generation USPS employee and Director of the Clerk Craft. "We work 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, those doors never close and the lights never turn off."
Ducharme is a member of a union representing around 600 postal employees across East Tennessee.
"We're not being kept apprised of what possible changes could impact the employees," he said. "The medicine that gets shipped out from the VA to people outside the state? How is that going to be impacted? Those questions have not been answered yet."
The USPS said it hopes to raise on-time delivery rates to at least 95% through the Delivering for America plan. The postal service hopes to collect extensive public input about the plan. Anyone who can't attend Thursday's meeting can also submit written comments online about the plan for Knoxville's facility. The USPS is collecting comments until Dec. 15.