USPS proposed changes in Reno would send South Lake Tahoe/Stateline mail to Sacramento

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - The United States Postal Service (USPS) has proposed a plan to revamp its system in the country in a $40 billion investment strategy. The plan would upgrade and improve the Postal processing, transportation, and delivery networks.

At this time, USPS is conducting an evaluation of current operations and potential future uses of its Reno Processing and Distribution Center (P&DC) facility in Reno, Nev.

South Lake Tahoe and Stateline mail is processed at the Reno facility, and it is being proposed to move main operations to Sacramento. The mail processing facility review business case supports transferring some outbound mail processing operations from Reno to the Sacramento P&DC.

Incoming mail destined for the Reno Local Processing Center (LPC) coverage area from around the country will aggregate in Sacramento and then be transported to Reno. Once at the Reno LPC, mail will be processed into carrier route sequence – essentially preparing it for delivery by the carrier. Prepared mail will then travel from the Reno LPC to South Lake Tahoe and Stateline Post Offices for delivery.

"About 10-15 percent of all mail sent out from the Reno Plant is destined for local addresses. Local mail is, and will continue to be, a two to three-day delivery product," Ron Spurgeon, USPS strategic communication specialist told South Tahoe Now. "For example, mail sent locally on Monday will be transported to Sacramento and arrive late that night. There it will be aggregated with all the other mail on high-speed processing equipment early Tuesday morning. It will then be sent back to Reno Tuesday afternoon where it will be sorted for local distribution Tuesday night and delivered on Wednesday or Thursday."

U.S. Senator Jacky Rosen (D-NV), Senator Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), and Representative Mark Amodei (R-NV-02) wrote a letter expressing their serious concern to USPS Postmaster General Louis DeJoy about the proposed relocation. They told DeJoy that the delayed mail delivery for families in northern Nevada concerned them, and they requested information about its impact on mail service reliability and jobs in the community. They were also concerned about travel on I80 in the winter, and since it has closed in the past, they wanted to know from DeJoy what delivery times would be in those cases.

Spurgeon said that much of the mail already travels from Reno to Sacramento along the I80 to reach the rest of the country and back along the I80 when mail travels from the rest of the country to Reno.

"The discussions about weather, road closures, and delays are not new. They are simply part of the daily challenges of servicing the area," said Spurgeon.

In the proposed plan, all letters destined to South Lake Tahoe and Stateline, and letters destined to other parts of the country would shift to Sacramento instead of Reno. From there, it will travel to Reno where it will be organized by automated machinery into carrier route sequence. Once the mail is sorted, it will go to the post offices for delivery in the area, including South Lake Tahoe and Stateline.

Most Post Offices don’t have mail sorting capabilities, including the offices in South Lake Tahoe and Stateline. Sorting has to be performed on automated machinery at processing plants. Currently, letters from South Lake Tahoe and Stateline are sorted in Reno.

If approved, the Reno LPC will undergo renovation during the change, including state-of-the-art equipment, new lighting, staff areas, new parking lots and transfer areas, and new vehicles.

The comment period ended earlier this week. For a review of the plans for Reno and the rest of the country, visit https://about.usps.com/what/strategic-plans/mpfr/welcome.htm.