8News goes behind the scenes at a Henrico USPS processing facility during the holiday rush

Dec 9, 2025 - 21:25

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8News goes behind the scenes at a Henrico USPS processing facility during the holiday rush

RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) — With about two weeks until Christmas, the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) says it's entering its busiest mailing days of the holiday season and officials at the Richmond Regional Processing & Distribution Center (RPDC) say they’re prepared for the rush.

The facility in Sandston handles mail for much of Central Virginia. More than 600 employees receive, sort and dispatch letters and packages headed to local post offices and addresses across the region.

“It’s the busiest time of year, but it’s the most exciting time of year,” said USPS Communications Specialist Philip Bogenberger during a tour of the site on Tuesday, Dec. 9.

USPS said the site is capable of processing more than 500,000 packages per day. Bogenberger said the addition of artificial intelligence, and recent upgrades to the facility’s equipment, including high speed package sorting machines, have helped with efficiency.

“We’re using advanced logistics from our processing centers to our post offices,” he said. “But you need employees to be able to manage and run those, and it’s making things less physically demanding.”

Inside the 700,000-square-foot facility, holiday cards and letters travel along overhead conveyor belts, while larger packages move through scanners and sorting machines on the floor below. Each piece of mail is scanned, sorted and routed based on destination before it eventually makes its way to your mailbox.

Over the last few years, Central Virginia residents have reported a number of issues with delayed and missing mail. RPDC also faced serious operational challenges. Bogenberger said some of those issues were tied to the center’s transition into a regional hub in July 2023, but he said USPS has since resolved the “kinks.”

“Customers should be confident that if they mail with the US postal Service, their package and holiday mail, and all the other mail that they do throughout the year and during the season, it's going to get to its destination fast, efficiently and accurately,” he said.