Help Round Up MTE for Holiday Season

Each year, the Postal Service spends millions of dollars to replace pallets that leak out of its network. USPS provides pallets to mailers for bulk shipments, but far too often, they’re not returned. With wooden and plastic pallets ranging from $7 to $20 each, losses quickly add up.

Many offices are stepping up to help recover missing pallets, including the Dulles, VA, Air Transport Office (ATO). After ATO employees noticed an increasing volume of pallets in cargo buildings and trucks, they launched an aggressive recovery campaign. Working with the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, they recovered in the past year pallets and other mail transport equipment (MTE) such as flat tubs, worth $120,000.

USPS is experiencing a shortage of MTE. And with the holiday season rapidly approaching, demand for equipment is high. Employees who see postal equipment that is obviously outside the postal network should call the MTE hotline — 866-330-3404 — to pass along information about the location, type and quantities of equipment to be retrieved. In addition to calling the hotline, employees can send information related to equipment recovery to hqmte@usps.gov.