The U.S. Postmaster General, Louis DeJoy, spoke at the Postal Service's new Charlotte Regional Processing and Distribution Center (RPDC) in Gaston County.
The facility is at NorthPoint Development's Gateway85 industrial park between Gastonia and Lowell and is part of USPS' nine-figure investment in the Charlotte region.
The operation is around 20% ramped up so far, DeJoy said, and will employ between 750 and 1,000 people at full capacity.
Why it matters: The facility is a piece of the Postal Service's larger 10-year Delivering for America plan — DeJoy's ambitious vision to modernize and financially revive the organization.
"We're trying to create a conveyor to and from everyone's home," DeJoy said.
The new processing network model calls for consolidating operations and a reduction in the total number of processing centers. The RPDCs are critical to USPS' plans to streamline the network and will feed local processing centers, sorting and delivery centers and delivery units.
Part of the Gaston County operations there are still under construction. USPS is still hiring workers there. DeJoy said 500 truckloads would come in and out of the Charlotte RPDC per day.
What they're saying: "We're going to do a lot with this plant for the region," DeJoy said.
By the numbers: USPS originally leased the building at Gateway85, which is well over 620,000 square feet. DeJoy said the facility would wind up at around 700,000 square feet.
USPS chose the Gaston County location because its studies pointed to needing the facility west of Charlotte along Interstate 85. The Gateway85 building's size and proximity to the interstate made it a strong fit for the Postal Service.
The building is an early test of USPS' new processing network. It also represents DeJoy turning to N.C. once again to validate his business plan, which he is confident the Gaston County facility will showcase.
"I expect to see the system work as planned, which is more efficient, more reliable, better for our employees and to help take us into the future," DeJoy said.