US postal service is adding 45 new facilities and 40,000 seasonal workers to handle peak shipping during the holidays, postmaster says

• USPS struggled with delays during last year’s holiday season.
• Postmaster General Louis DeJoy told The Wall Street Journal USPS is adding 45 new facilities to help.
• DeJoy said USPS can handle more than 50 million packages a day, a 35% increase from last year.

The United States Postal Service will add 45 new facilities during the peak holiday season, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy told The Wall Street Journal.

DeJoy said the new facilities will help with extra shipping volume and package overflow to avoid delays like the ones that occurred last year.

The Journal also reported that USPS is adding 112 new machines to sort packages and hiring an additional 40,000 workers for the season. USPS said it can handle more than 50 million packages a day, a 35% increase from last year.

“We’re going to kill it,” DeJoy told The Journal.

The news comes as a global supply-chain crisis threatens Americans’ holiday shopping. Insider’s Grace Kay reported the crisis was brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic and a rise in demand for products. A worker shortage is also complicating the situation.

Supply-chain issues are also causing retailers to offer less deals and sales than they typically would. Due to port traffic jams and transportation industry labor shortages, retailers have less inventory and are waiting longer for new products to come in.

In an effort to address the issue, The White House announced earlier this month that the Port of Los Angeles would run some terminals 24/7. A similar announcement was previously made for a port in Long Beach.

As of Tuesday, there was a record 100 ships waiting to dock and unload at the Port of Los Angeles.