In this episode, we delve into the complex world of handling hazardous materials at the Postal Service. From stringent regulations to specialized training, we uncover the meticulous processes involved in ensuring the safe transportation of hazardous items. Join us as we explore how USPS prioritizes employee and public safety, compliance, and reliability in every step of the shipping journey.
This week on Mailin' It, we’re joined by Chief Commerce and Business Solutions Officer Jakki Krage Strako and Chief Logistics Officer Kelly Abney to discuss a very serious issue, the shipping of hazardous materials. With more and more items relying on lithium batteries, understanding how the Postal Service maintains rigorous safety protocols and the pivotal role shippers play is essential. Join us to learn about the potential dangers of shipping everyday items such as cleaners or cellphones, and what the Postal Service is doing to raise awareness on the hazardous chemicals they contain.
Karla Kirby:
Hello and welcome to Mailin’ It, the official podcast of United States Postal Service. I'm Karla Kirby.
Jonathan Castillo:
And I'm Jonathan Castillo. Karla, for this episode, we're gonna talk about a really serious issue for the Postal Service: the shipping of hazardous materials. And I say it serious because even though this doesn't apply to a lot of the mail in our network, any item that could be flammable or toxic must be handled very carefully.
Karla Kirby:
You know that's right, Jonathan. Whether or not something is considered a hazardous material affects how it can be mailed, or whether it can be mailed at all. And while the Postal Service has rules for shipping these materials, we also have to comply with the rules made by outside parties, like companies that handle our ail mail. It's a big topic. And here to take us through it are Jakki Craig Strako and Kelly Abney. Kelly is the Postal Services Chief Logistics Officer and executive VP. Jakki is the Postal's Chief Commerce and Business Solutions Officer and executive VP, and also a returning guest to mailing it. Welcome Kelly. And welcome back Jakki.
Kelly Abney:
Thank You.
Jakki Strako:
Thanks for having us.
Jonathan Castillo:
I think a good place for us to start is to describe what we're talking about when we say hazardous materials. Most people probably don't think about cell phones or many of the products they use in their homes as hazardous. Right? But certain items have to be treated with special care when you're shipping them. What are some of the most common hazardous materials that people try to mail?
Kelly Abney:
Well, there are several different classifications of hazardous materials. And examples are, you know, obviously things like explosives, gases, and flammables. But there are nine categories in total. And some of the most common hazardous items mailed today are paints, aerosols, and cleaners like muriatic acid, metallic mercury, and other devices containing metallic mercury are always prohibited in the mail stream. And this includes things like older thermometers, barometers, and even some old blood pressure monitors. And more recently, devices with lithium batteries have become a real problem. USPS classifies used, damaged, or defective cell phones as hazardous materials due to their batteries. New cell phones do not have this restriction. The lithium batteries are also in many other devices, including motorized scooters, which are also prohibited from the mail stream.
Jonathan Castillo:
Kelly, I know that you had mentioned that mercury is one of these items and, and it really has been a problem. I know that over the summer we issued a press release reminding people that they can't mail things with mercury in them. Tell me what makes mercury and, and these other materials so dangerous?
Kelly Abney:
Well, if you can visualize one of our processing facilities full of moving conveyors, a mercury spill that gets into that mix and travels across that conveyor can truly shut down a post office for days at a time. And in many cases, it takes weeks to get it cleaned up. Lithium batteries can also catch fire, especially on aircraft. And I think you all understand that, you know, you get questioned every time you get on an airline today. Do you have any lithium batteries in your luggage? And it's a real problem.
Karla Kirby:
Well, it sounds like the Postal Service has had to change its rules over time because of the nature of what's being mailed has changed so much. How do we stay on top of these changes?
Jakki Strako:
That's a great question, Karla. It's constant vigilance that keeps us on top of our game. And to the earlier point, we have to keep up with, you know, department of transportation, other people involved in this so that we're current and we're doing the right things. So for starters, we work really closely with the airlines, and they had flagged for us a year ago that they were becoming concerned about the potentially hazardous situation that lithium batteries can contain. So as Kelly talked about, the airlines implemented their own processes and compliances, whether you're a passenger or if it's like the Postal Service providing what they would call cargo. We had to make sure that we were keeping the airlines safe. Batteries were not designed with air safety. And to Kelly's point earlier, what's being shipped has changed over time. So there's a lot more items that are powered by lithium batteries.
So it's really important that we updated things. Larger retailers are generally aware of the changing rules, but we have a lot of small businesses that leverage the Postal Service to do their business. So it was a big lift on the overall postal team to make sure as we were changing our products and our product requirements, that we also reached out and educated our customers. But we also had to educate the American public. I just recently shipped an iWatch to my mother. I accidentally had it in my backpack. It was her watch. I accidentally took it back to Chicago with me, so I needed to send it back to her. So as a consumer, I went on click and ship and the questions prompted me. I knew I was shipping a used watch, if you will, and I knew it was hazardous based on the questions. So it's educating not only the shippers, but the American public who are leveraging our services so we can keep the sky safe.
Jonathan Castillo:
Tell me why is it so important to have restrictions on what's mailed and how it's mailed?
Jakki Strako:
Yeah, that's a great question, Jonathan. I think when I'm talking in live audiences, and I know we're live or in podcast world, but I ask people usually gimme a show of hands, how many of you flew to this meeting today? And you know, with the way the world is today, there's a lot of air travel and you know, a lot of hands go up in the room and I tell them, do you feel safe getting on a plane? And do you understand about lithium batteries, the fires, and things like that? And it's really been an education to get people really to understand why the airlines started asking them that question. So it's been a big awareness, but it's all about keeping that air network safe. When they're packaged properly, when it's brand new, the lithium battery's not in the device, so there's not the risk or as big of a risk. So it's very important that people understand this new requirement that we have in the Postal Service for those used lithium batteries.
Karla Kirby:
So Jakki, most of our customers are probably familiar with the standard questions they're asked when they go to the Postal Service about whether they're mailing hazardous materials. And as we're finding out some of which today those questions aren't just window dressing, it sounds like they're the first line of defense against any mail that might pose a danger to the post office or its customers. How much do we rely on self-reporting from our customers to identify these hazardous materials?
Kelly Abney:
Well we depend on them a lot, Karla. Most people, you know, they just don't realize that they're shipping things with hazardous materials in them. And it's been an iterative process of educating the public to make them aware of that. It's important though, for them to answer those questions honestly so that their packages can be labeled correctly. If mailers aren't honest, it becomes a situation where we don't know what we don't know. It just becomes another brown box for us, and we don't have the right care to make sure that it doesn't get on an airplane. Most violations are people mailing things from person to person or from smaller vendors. Larger vendors, for the most part, are coming into compliance and staying on top of the changes in the shipping rooms.
Jonathan Castillo:
Kelly, you mentioned that our customers are basically our first line of defense. I'm wondering maybe Jakki, you could jump in. How else does the Postal Service make sure hazardous materials are labeled correctly or prevented from entering the mail network altogether?
Jakki Strako:
Right. So that was a lot of the product changes and the journey we've been on for the last year, year and a half. So the very first thing we did is we created a requirement that customers had to physically separate what was HAZMAT from non-HAZMAT. And then once we had that physical separation, then we relied on the eyeballs of all of our great employees as they were handling that package. They would look at the designations on the box and the designations would inform our employee, does this need to move via the ground network or does this need to move via the air network? Or sadly, in some cases we'd get some packages into our network that were not shippable like Kelly talked about, explosives can't ship explosives through the mail. So based on those designations on the box, we'd be able to visually handle things the proper way.
Now, is it very efficient to handle every single box by hand and rely on the human eye to catch and everybody to remember all of the requirements and which direction it goes? It's tough. So the second thing that we did on our journey to improve our HAZMAT processes is we put a new requirement out there. So on all of our packages, we have something called the intelligent mail barcode. And that barcode contains a lot of information, obviously the basics, the address so that we know you know, where we're delivering that package to. But there's also embedded in that barcode something we call service type codes. So what we did is we made a requirement of our shippers that they had to ask the questions to identify what type of HAZMAT was it that was in that particular box. Based on the type of HAZMAT in the box the appropriate STC code would be embedded right into the barcode.
So if it was truly a mailable HAZMAT item, step one, was it allowed in our error network, yes or no? And then the appropriate application of the STC was applied. Then our awesome engineering team partnered up with them. And what they did is they made modifications in our system software so that we could read that service type code embedded at that intelligent mail bar code, and then we could make the decision on the machine, okay, this is an STC that designates ground only, and it would process on the sortation to drop that into a container that we knew was gonna go on the ground. So instead of relying on the visual, we, we still have the markings on the box so we can still spot check, but now we've got that STC code that allows our machines to make the decision instead of relying on human intervention for every single package.
So very exciting. It's been a long journey. So you can imagine the sort logic not only on our end but on our shipper's end. So, you know, the bigger shippers have to build into their logic all the questions or all the information about each SKU so they know if that SKU drops in the box, they need to apply a certain STC code. So a lot of work went on both on our end as well as our shippers. And then we changed our postal systems that I'll say are customer facing. So for example, if in my watch that I sent to my mother, I went on click and ship. So we changed our process in click and ship to ask additional questions, and then based on the answers, we present the right product because if it's ground only, we want you using Ground Advantage. And then it produce the appropriate STC code so that we changed our systems as well. So we could keep everybody safe.
Kelly Abney:
From that service type code. Postal Service software flags something. For example, that it's too dangerous to be sent via an airplane. Instead we want it sent via Ground Advantage. And that means priority mail is not an option. Since July, when shipping a used damaged or defective cell phone mailers must answer yes when prompted with a question, are you shipping dangerous goods or hazardous material in alignment with publication 52? Pub 52 is a Postal regulation that explains mailing standards for shipping hazardous restricted and perishable materials. Mailers select a category of the hazardous material they believe their shipping and for used or damaged or defective cell phones choose class nine lithium battery, returns package, used electronic devices containing or packaged with lithium batteries. You note that every functional group at Postal had a hand in rolling out the new protocol in July. It was an all hands on deck situation. And the Postal's success rate in identifying hazardous materials and making sure they are shipped via the correct way is now at 99.8%. And we love that number. We're very proud of the fact that we've been able to make that kind of impact, but as long as I have an opportunity to be on that airplane that represents the 0.2%, I'm gonna keep working to make sure that we further close that gap.
Karla Kirby:
Great point. And hopefully our listeners are taking that to heart. So Jakki, in mentioning the new service type code requirement - that kicked in right around when we launched Ground Advantage, I'm guessing that wasn't a coincidence?
Jakki Strako:
No, no. We were really built the Ground Advantage product right on all of the work that Kelly was doing. So Kelly and team have done an awesome job. When we changed the mail service standard, Kelly was able to lay down a full ground network for the Postal Service, which was much needed and an awesome solution. So we were able to create a Ground Advantage product to lay right on top of the mail network and provide the same level of service. So two to five day service standard for the contiguous US, which is awesome. So the ground product, by nature of being on the ground, if it is hazardous and a customer needs a two to five day solution, this was the perfect solution. Prior to this, we did have a full ground network that only operated through our NDCs. We only had 21 NDCs, so a network of 21 versus a network of hundreds.
Very different. So our old parcel select ground product, which is where if people had HAZMAT, they typically put it in that product line that had a service standard of two to 16 days. For a lot of shippers, that's not gonna meet the customer promise. And again, with so many things being ordered and shipped that had lithium batteries, it wasn't a winning solution. So with Ground Advantage, when we rolled it out, we knew we had a winner not only for people shipping non HAZMAT, but we knew we had a big winner for HAZMAT as well because it was this great two to five day shipping service standard and leveraging the ground network so affordable, reliable, and a HAZMAT friendly shipping solution.
Jonathan Castillo:
And that new strategy is actually part of the Postal Services Delivering for America 10 year plan to transform and modernize the organization. Were hazardous materials a consideration when this plan was being drawn up a couple years ago?
Kelly Abney:
Really, that that didn't factor in, but it truly was a great side effect and dramatically lowered our exposure within the Air Network. We've been moving mail and package volume from the more expensive air transportation network to our designed ground transportation network. And currently 95% of our First Class Mail and Ground Advantage packages move through our improved more reliable ground transportation system. Historically, that mix has been between ground and air shipping was closer to 50-50 - a real sea change in the way that we move our packages and mail.
Jakki Strako:
And when we did launch Ground Advantage, we said, if you have a shippable hazardous material that you could leverage our network in a new way. So as I said, it's an exciting new offering that creates one more solution for the Postal Service and our customers, and that definitely ties into Delivering for America. And Delivering for America…. Part of part of the strategy is growth, and as Kelly talked about it, a big, big part of Delivering for America is changing to that cost effective, more reliable ground transportation network.
Karla Kirby:
We've talked a lot about what qualifies as a hazardous material and why it is so important for the mailers to work with the Postal Service to make sure those materials are identified. Now, unfortunately, we would love for everybody to follow the rules, but what happens when a mailer doesn't identify something as a hazardous material and that package leaks or even catches fire?
Kelly Abney:
Well, Karla of course we never hope that that's going to happen as a result of something that the Postal Service tendered to an airline. But if it does and people violate these rules, the Inspection Service can issue a, a civil penalty. And more specifically, if the person knowingly ships dangerous items or material, they could be fined anywhere from $250 to $100,000 per violation, charged with cleanup costs associated with those violations, which can be in the millions of dollars and pay for any additional damages. And in some cases they could even face criminal penalties. I'd like to, you know, point out that, you know, the majority of Postal customers follow the rules and guidelines, and we appreciate that and we want to keep it that way. The public's ongoing vigilance and education helps keep the postal network safe.
Karla Kirby:
So Kelly, thank you for that explanation about really the importance and of course the penalties for not reporting hazardous materials. Jakki or Kelly, either one of you are you able to give our listeners or our customers shipping customers information on where they can determine what a hazardous material is and how to know how to properly label their shipping items?
Jakki Strako:
That is a great question, Karla. And we do, we have, as we were working on all of this, we wanted to make sure we had a easy, convenient way for customers or consumers to get this information. So if you go to usps.com, you will find that we've got a link to our Publication 52, which lists everything and all the specifics that you need to know. If you go to our website, we've tried to make it real easy, so go to usps.com and you can find it out there. And again, if there's questions, you know, shippers can definitely, you know, give a call to their account rep or you know, anybody here at the Postal Service, we'd be more than happy to work with them to make sure that they have the knowledge that they need to make sure that they're properly identifying their packages.
Karla Kirby:
And for our individual shippers, like yourself sending the watch back, you can also walk into your retail post office, correct?
Jakki Strako:
Absolutely, yes. All of our retail associates - that's been part of this - the number of people that have been trained and retrained in the Postal Service has been huge. So definitely walk into your retail unit, you can have that conversation with the sales associate there, and they can educate you on what can and cannot be shipped.
Jonathan Castillo:
Jakki, Kelly, you know, let me say just thank you so much for speaking with us today about hazardous materials. We learned a lot and I'm sure that our listeners would appreciate having a much better understanding of shipping hazardous materials with the Postal Service. It was an honor having you both on.
Karla Kirby:
Yes, definitely Jakki and Kelly. We appreciate you bringing all this information for our listeners and definitely reinforcing just the importance of the service type codes and reporting hazardous materials that are entering our mail stream.
Jakki Strako:
Thank you for having us.
Kelly Abney:
Thank you.
Karla Kirby:
And now it's time for another, Did You Know, segment where Jonathan and I discuss surprising facts about the Postal Service? I'll get things started. Jonathan, did you know that the Postal Service has an unofficial motto?
Jonathan Castillo:
Unofficial. How so?
Karla Kirby:
Well, as you know, there is no official motto for the Postal Service, but there is popular belief that there is one. It comes from an inscription engraved over the entrance of the New York General Post Office on 8th Avenue, which reads “neither snow nor rain, nor heat nor gloom of night stays. These couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.” The inscription was selected by one of the architects that designed the building as a tribute to America's Postal workers, which opened to the public on Labor Day in 1914.
Jonathan Castillo:
Fascinating. So where did this motto come from?
Karla Kirby:
So, according to Devin Leonard's book titled “After the Motto, Neither Snow Nor Rain,” it was inspired by a translation of the Persian wars books from the Greek historian Herodotus. The architect who read Greek mythology, modified a quote from one of the books, where Herodotus spoke about the messengers that served under King Darius of Persia. The Persians operated a system of mounted postal couriers and what is regarded as one of the most celebrated ancient postal systems, which help extend the king's power throughout the Middle East and into Asia.
Jonathan Castillo:
Wow. Quite an example to live up to, but I think it's fair to say our Postal Service workers fit the bill. My Did You Know, involves another historical leader.
Karla Kirby:
I love history, so I'm all ears.
Jonathan Castillo:
Did you know that our 32nd US President, Franklin D. Roosevelt was a devoted collector of stamps and actually sketched numerous ideas for stamp designs?
Karla Kirby:
That is so cool. I wonder what drew him to stamps?
Jonathan Castillo:
Well, as a child, FDR looked to stamps for knowledge about the world. It was during the 1930s when the White House released photographs of him working on his stamp collection that others became aware of his love for stamps, and it actually sparked nationwide interest in stamp collecting and clubs as well.
Karla Kirby:
That's awesome. What a great champion for stamp collecting as a hobby.
Jonathan Castillo:
Yeah, in fact, FDR involved himself in the Post Office's stamp issuing process more than any other president before or after him, where he helped brainstorm stamp designs, colors and themes. And his devotion to stamp collecting was more than just a private escape. FDR joined stamp clubs, bought stamps at dealer auctions, and promoted the hobby during his time as president. And that wraps up this edition of, Did You Know.
Karla, there was so much great information shared with us today. I don't even know where to start. I think what really stood out to me was something Kelly had pointed out that people may not realize the impact of failing to adhere to our HAZMAT guidelines, right? But when a processing facility has to shut down because of spilled mercury, that's a big deal and you're literally putting people's lives at risk. So I think my key takeaway from today was don't ship mercury.
Karla Kirby:
Definitely. And I would say one of the key takeaways for me, you know, flying, is to check the appropriate boxes. You never know based on what you're shipping, and not only when you're flying, by not checking the fact that you have a hazardous material so it could be handled properly. You are jeopardizing not only your life, but the life of others that may be flying on something that's carrying mail or something that is in someone's suitcase. So definitely something that everybody needs to pay attention to, adhere to the rules.
That's all for this episode of Mailin’ It. Don't forget to subscribe to Mailin’ It wherever you get your podcast to make sure you don't miss any episodes. And follow along on Instagram @USPostal Service, X formerly known as Twitter @USPS, and on Facebook.