Does This Make Sense?
So much for creating more efficiency in the postal service. In order to reach a savings of only $11,873 per year, the USPS has decided to get rid of the Jamestown postmark and double the delivery time to the south and west. Mail something to your next door neighbor and it will travel about 200 miles before getting there.
I can understand the need to cut costs. The USPS has been borrowing money to stay afloat, already. Considering that this change will only save less that $12,000 per year, is it really worth it, though?
The story states that there has been a 50% drop in first-class mail in the past 10 years and the volume of mail will continue to drop over the next decade. What the story does not say is how the USPS has been inundated with deliveries that it handles for UPS/FedEx. Through “special deals” with other shipping services, the USPS has essentially become an arm of the other delivery companies.
When more and more people are ordering items online, services like UPS are used more frequently than ever. The UPS deal with the USPS allows them to drop items off at local post offices for “last mile” delivery at a deeply discounted rate. UPS ends up making more money (because they charge more) and they also save a bundle, since they don’t have to do as much driving (especially in rural areas).
This creates more work for USPS workers while they make less money per delivered item. The business model simply does not work. The changes that are coming for Jamestown’s post office in January is a big step backwards, and the savings that it creates is very small
From the Jamestown Sun:
JAMESTOWN, N.D. – Jamestown’s mail-processing operations will be relocated to Fargo by January 2012, the U.S. Postal Service announced Tuesday.
“It’s partially cost saving. It’s also part of what we’re doing overall with our network with less volume to bring into our system,” said Pete Nowacki, regional spokesperson for USPS.
The move of processing operations out of Jamestown to Fargo will save USPS $11,873 annually. Jamestown is one of 252 plant consolidation studies nationwide as a way to respond to a decrease in mail volume.
At the Fargo facility, Jamestown mail will be processed with newer and better technology and equipment before it reaches its location, Nowacki said.
The decision comes after a USPS study that began March 18.
Nationally there has been a 20 percent decline in mail volume since 2007. First-class single-piece mail has been reduced by 50 percent over the past 10 years, Nowacki said.
“Mail volumes are going to drop for the next 10 years so we’re changing our network and facilities to reflect that,” he said.
The consolidation could result in some Jamestown employees being relocated in accordance with the USPS employees’ collective bargaining rights. Nowacki was unsure of the number.
“It depends on openings and how the agreement is applied,” he said.
There are currently 15 clerks and two maintenance employees at the Jamestown Post Office.
New with the change will be overnight delivery from Jamestown to northwestern Minnesota and Grand Forks. However, delivery from Jamestown to Bismarck and Aberdeen will take two days.
Mail in town will keep getting overnight delivery, even though that piece of mail travels from Jamestown to Fargo and then back to Jamestown.
There will be no change to delivery or retail sale options locally.
But with the consolidation of mail processing in Jamestown to Fargo the city of Jamestown will lose its postmark, unless senders request it at the post-office window.
With local mail traveling so far before it makes it to its location in Jamestown, weather concerns USPS. But Nowacki said it’s nothing that USPS isn’t comfortable with and that mail is delivered in winter conditions all the time.
“We understand that we’re going to have weather difficulties and does it shut us down sometimes, yes, it can,” Nowacki said.
In a related story, union postal workers protest in North Dakota.
This doesn’t make sense, but it won’t be the last consolidation. USPS is looking at moving their sorting out of Grand Forks, Minot, and even Rapid City. Unfortunately, this is only the beginning.
I say good riddance to the local processing center. Every single magazine that I get in the mail is bent in half to the point where it is almost impossible to read because of the crease. There’s no reason to bend it when it can just be placed in my oversized mailbox. I’ve had the same thing happen to larger envelopes that have DO NOT BEND stamped on them.
From the story:
“There will be no change to delivery or retail sale options locally.”
Just because it won’t be processed here doesn’t mean things won’ get bent. Of the 17 employees working in Jamestown, they are unsure of the number of employees that would be relocated.