Long Island now home to one of fastest mail systems in US: Postal Service

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Long Island now has one of the fastest, most efficient and reliable mail services in the country thanks to a high-tech Postal Service upgrade covering both its counties, officials say.

A US Postal Service state-of-the-art sorting and delivery center opened in Huntington Station in Suffolk County last week as part of a $40 billion nationwide modernization effort aimed at dragging the country’s aging mail system into the 21st century.

The move comes after the October opening of Nassau County’s revamped hub in Hicksville — making Long Island one of the only regions in the country where both counties are fully modernized.

“With these upgrades, Long Island now has one of the most efficient mail systems in the country,” USPS spokeswoman Amy Gibbs told The Post.

Officials said results are already being delivered to residents throughout both counties. 

“Customers are definitely getting their packages faster,” said Robert Kasten, who oversees vehicle operations for the Atlantic 4 territory, which includes Long Island. 

Inside the Huntington Station facility, sleek new machines can sort 6,000 packages in under two hours — a job that used to take five hours. Carriers also can now make up to 500 stops a day thanks to newly optimized routes, earlier dispatch times and state-of-the-art EV delivery trucks. 

USPS has already deployed 16 of the new electric Ram ProMaster trucks across Suffolk, with plans to eventually replace the county’s entire decades-old 1,400-vehicle fleet. 

The EV vehicles can run for days without needing a charge and are designed with better visibility, easier dismounting and improved ergonomics to help carriers move quicker and safer.

“These new, state-of-the-art facilities and vehicles help make the Postal Service more efficient, more capable, and more competitive for the future,” said Postmaster General Doug Tulino. 

Anthony Barone, who is in charge of the new Suffolk center, revealed that along with the high-tech upgrades, employees are also starting their work days half an hour earlier to get around faster. 

“We used to start around 8 a.m.,” Barone told Newsday. “Now they’re starting at 7:30. With that efficiency in optimization — having the mail processed sooner — we can start the carriers sooner, and our customers get their mail earlier.”

At the Hicksville facility, which opened in 2024, upgrades included adding 57 EV postal vehicles and charging stations, renovations to the employee break room and bathrooms and the modernization of the sorting system with new machines.

Employees of the Hicksville sorting and delivery center said it used to take six carriers a full day — nearly 50 combined hours — to sort through the day’s packages. Now, the same job takes two or three carriers about 90 minutes.

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The Long Island hubs are just two of roughly 111 newly modernized sorting and delivery centers opening across the US as the Postal Service tries to reverse decades of deferred maintenance and bring its outdated network up to speed, according to the agency. 

The upgrades are thanks to the Postal Service investing $40 billion over 10 years to revamp its processing, mail and package systems, having already poured more than $18.9 billion into renovations nationwide, according to Gibbs. 

In addition to faster delivery times, postal officials said the new center is improving conditions for workers — with more space, better lighting and streamlined workflows replacing the cramped, aging infrastructure many centers still operate with.

“In a society that is so instant … you really want a reliable service that you can get the next day,” said Michael Hotetz, USPS’ manager of post office modernization. 

“That’s the kind of consistency we’re trying to restore.”