You may be getting a lot more things by mail nowadays: birthday cards that couldn’t be hand-delivered, masks or cleaning supplies, even new shirts for work Zoom meetings.
A lot of those deliveries in the Bay Area are going through one very busy mail processing facility.
“We’re actually in the top ten in the country when it comes to service for first class volume,” says Eduardo Cuadra, maintenance manager at the U.S. Postal Service’ Oakland Processing and Distribution Center. And the facility has only gotten busier thanks to the coronavirus pandemic. “We’re talking about roughly about 37% increase in parcels.”
The facility has had no reported cases of coronavirus.
“We’re providing certainty in the delivery of the things that people need,” said Augustine Ruiz, spokesperson. “And what they really need are the supplies that they can no longer get to the store to get: the medications that are very important, and yes even the stimulus checks. So all of that is adding to the overall of stability of America.”
Ruiz says that effort has not gone unnoticed as mail carriers are hearing from residents. “They’re leaving kind notes for them, they’re actually leaving masks and gloves and hand sanitizers.”
The increased workload means the USPS is hiring in big numbers.
“We understand there’s a lot of folks that may have been laid off out there,” says Cuadra. “Just between the major distribution centers in the Bay Area, we’re looking for about approximately 1,000 employees.”
You can find out how to apply on the USPS website.