USPS goes high-tech for the holidays

ORLANDO, Fla. - With an influx of packages expected this holiday season, the U.S. Postal Service has a new high-tech way of sorting packages – some 3,000 by the hour – to make sure your deliveries get there on time.

At a Central Florida U.S. Postal Service processing and distribution center, Santa has arrived early, with the gift of the new cutting edge technology, helping workers like Leon Ziomek deliver your packages. 

"I was shocked. It’s, it’s good to see. It will help out."

Plant Manager Lisa Lake says there are only 112 sorters like this one in the country.

"I have new package sorting equipment and new robots as well so that we can process all this wonderful volume that we’re going to be providing customers this peak season." 

Packages are scanned and sorted into bins going to a certain area. There are also robots to help sort the larger packages.

"We wanted to make sure that our customers were able to get their packages on time after everything we experienced last year," Lake adds. 

"It was really tough last year to find space on both trucks and the airlines," says U.S. Postal Service spokesperson David Walton. 

Walton says the pandemic made it difficult to deliver a billion packages last year. That’s why they created the Postal Service’s Delivering for America plan, investing $40 billion in improvements over the next 10 years. Walton says more technology is on the way. 

"We’re soon going to be replacing those classic LLV’s you see on the road with hybrid electric vehicles."

Lake says the new technology allows them to be more efficient, with fewer people. 

"We’re just excited to have them."

The USPS says you should make sure to drop off your packages by Dec. 17 if it's going by first-class mail.

Watch FOX 35 News for the latest Central Florida stories.