Postal Service says facilities not experiencing delays

The U.S. Postal Service denies assertions by a local postal union leader that the transfer of mail processing from Cape Girardeau to St. Louis is causing significant delays in mail arrival and delivery mishaps.

But a Postal Service spokesman acknowledged Wednesday there are some kinks in the transition that will take some fixing.

Neither the St. Louis mail processing facility nor the Richard G. Wilson Processing and Distribution Facility in Cape Girardeau are overwhelmed with mail processing duties, Postal Service regional spokesman Richard Watkins said Wednesday, and the barcoding of mail is an issue the USPS is working to resolve.

Last week, a local leader of the American Postal Workers Union, Greg Davidson, said as more mail is processed in St. Louis instead of Cape Girardeau, some customers are receiving mail late, and some mail isn't printed with a barcode that helps machines send the mail to the right route. Davidson also questioned the use of overtime at Cape Girardeau when the Postal Service is consolidating operations to save money.

There has been some need to use additional employees for overtime work, Watkins said. The use of employee overtime is a necessity "by design," he said, because employees retire or move on to other job opportunities because of the consolidation of processing facilities to prevent redundancy in operations.

Watkins said the USPS was at fault for some Gideon, Mo., residents not receiving their water shut-off notices in a timely manner, but the problem was not because the St. Louis mail processing facility is overwhelmed with mail. A postmaster accidentally caused the mail to dispatch to the wrong place, which delayed people in Gideon from receiving their water shut-off notices, he said. The problem was identified and fixed, he said, taking less than a day to resolve.

More times than not, errors are made not as a result of mail processing operations shifting, but because of human error, Watkins said.

The collection time of first class mail was moved from 5 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. in Cape Girardeau to allow for transportation from Cape Girardeau to St. Louis after originating mail operations, mail collected in Southeast Missouri, were moved to St. Louis as part of a Postal Service cost-reduction plan.

By early next year, mail destined for Southeast Missouri also will be sorted at the St. Louis mail processing center. The processing center in Cape Girardeau will remain open, but employees no longer will sort mail and will instead conduct other operations, under Postal Service plans.

Moving the collection time of first-class mail was a reasonable accommodation, Watkins said, when the amount of first-class mail to collect, sort and deliver is considered.

"Given the dramatic decline in mail volume, to continue to collect, sort and deliver a shrinking volume of mail the same way we always have would be irresponsible on our part. ... It can't possibly work that way."

There are some areas of processing, such as transportation and dispatch, that still have kinks. Watkins said it is a process that will take some time to perfect.

"They continue to work on that, and they'll fix it, but it's going to take some time," he said. "It's not perfect but they're going to get it right."

It is the USPS' responsibility to make sure that if there are errors, that they do not continue, Watkins said.

"The AMP [Area Mail Processing] is running smoothly," he said. "It does not mean errors are not made. All we ask for is the opportunity to hear questions about their mail or their service ..."

Watkins asks that if an individual does have a mailing question or issue, to bring the issue to a local postmaster because "that's what he or she is there for."

"We ask for the opportunity to make changes to make it right," he said.

adowning@semissourian.com

388-3632

Pertinent addresses:

320 N. Frederick St., Cape Girardeau, Mo.

475 Kell Farm Drive, Cape Girardeau, Mo.

Gideon, Mo.

St. Louis, Mo.