PHOENIX — The United States Postal Service is now operating a massive machine in Avondale that will help ensure you get your package a little faster.
The “Matrix East-West Sorter,” or MEWS, is an assembly of conveyor belts, slides and scanners roughly the size of a grocery store that can process more than one million packages a day.
The MEWS is housed at the Avondale regional processing and distribution center, a large building where USPS began operating a new shipping hub in April.
It’s part of a $40 billion, 10-year modernization effort at USPS, which began in 2021.
The cost of the new MEWS machine is proprietary and was not made public, but USPS did report it has spent $19 billion out of its $40 billion plan nationally.
What areas does the new USPS machine serve?
The Avondale RPDC helps get packages delivered in the Valley, as well as to communities in southern California and Nevada.
Overall, it sees around two million letters and packages every day.
“The main thing we want our customers to know is we are doing all that we can to improve the level of service that they receive,” said Sherry Patterson, USPS corporate communications specialist.
USPS officials said it has increased efficiency at the Avondale RPDC by 75% and has doubled the number of packages they can process.
Mechanical engineer Stefano Turbati said it’s the first sorter designed for regional package processing.
“The last time we were looking at those numbers, it was a significant drop — we’re talking about hours and hours shaved off the turnaround time just in this facility,” Turbati said.
While the MEWS is largely an automated machine, about 550 employees work at the Avondale center at times to make sure the sorter is running smoothly.
USPS plans to open around 60 more regional hubs like it in coming years.
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