USPS expands operations in Philadelphia to handle holiday rush

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- The United States Postal Service has expanded operations and the use of technology to ship thousands of additional packages out of the Philadelphia region this holiday season.

The USPS is the most frequently used package shipper in the country, delivering not just for the everyday person, but also for nearly every major company.

Employees are busy sorting thousands of packages from an annex in the Somerton neighborhood of Northeast Philadelphia.

"This is what we do. This is our season," said George Ruffin, II, Plant Manager of the Philadelphia Network Distribution Center.

SEE ALSO: Holiday shipping deadlines 2022: Last day to mail packages for Christmas delivery approaching

Ruffin said they usually use two facilities to handle the region, but for the second year now, they've opened the annex to sort holiday packages being shipped around the world.

"We couldn't get the packages to our people and to the American public without it," Ruffin said.

Action News was the first to get a tour of the annex and see the technology being used to quickly sort the packages.

Ruffin said they are able to ship 75,000 additional packages a day thanks to the sorting machines that are able to scan barcodes, read addresses and sort the package in the correct bin to be shipped.

For larger boxes, employees scan the barcode manually and then the machine tells them which lane to slide it down.