Went to the local PCC Meeting yesterday, to listen to Larry Belair, Senior Plant Manager describe the transition and implementation of the First Phase of the "New Service Standards" for the USPS. One of the first questions he asked the group was "Have you noticed any change in the in our Delivery Service"? There was none, and this is good news. They did a stellar job in moving the volume of Small bundles from the Midway processing facility to Margaret Sellars while tearing down and relocating the giant APPS machine and reassembling it at Margaret Sellars. They did this by installing a temporary SPBS (Small Parcel Buncle Sorter) machine prior to this implementation to help with the load. (The APPS is a machine larger than a football field that sorts bundles of flats)
So what does Phase 1 consist of? Its a combination of facility consolidation and a reduction in service standards. Locally this is the elimination of the Midway processing facility. Currently the home for entry discounts for Flats and also where they process all the Express Mail. Currently mailers have to drop the flats at Midway and their letter mail at Margaret Sellars in order to achieve Entry discounts for both. Important to note that Midway will continue to be a BMEU (Bulk Mail Entry Unit). August 15 is the start date for Entry Discounts for Flats to move, but you can continue to receive entry discounts at Midway until the cutoff on October 28.
The change in service standards for Overnight delivery was described like this. 80% of what was being delivered overnight will continue to be delivered overnight as part of Phase 1. So FCM mail originating within SD County and being Delivered within SD County will continue to receive overnight service. FCM that used to be delivered overnight from LA, Santa Ana will now be a two day service.
Some interesting facts, In 2005, the USPS had 673 Processing Facilities, by 2012 that has already shrank to 461 and the goal is to get to 321 by 2014 and 232 by 2015. The reduction in service standards makes this possible. Again you are wondering Why? Here's the reason, under the old service standard (Overnight) the equipment and facilities were poorly utilized, most of the sorting equipment was not in use during the majority of the day, then the night shift kicks in and runs the mail in 6 hours or so, not quite a full day's work but they get paid a full day anyway. With the delay in delivering, they can use less machines, less facilities and process throughout the day.
They are already getting over 1 Billion dollars in annual savings with this partial implementation, by the time they get to Phase 3 it will exceed 3 Billion dollars annually.
I believe that by the time full implementation comes, the Post Office will have in place a "Critical Mail" category. It will be available to everyone and will include Delivery Confirmation and overnight local area service for a reasonable price to fill the void. It just makes good business sense to do this.
There is a lot going on right now in the mailing world: a lame duck congress unable to move any important legislation, including the needed relief to the pre-funding requirements for Healthcare or to address the over payments into the Retirement accounts, the change / reduction in service standards as discussed above, the proposal to eliminate Saturday Delivery and the abundance of negative publicity that the public is being bombarded with everyday.
Mail is not going away. The Post Office is adapting and doing so smartly with a minimum of disruption. They are adjusting their footprint and head count to today's new reality. Mail maters. Mail works. Now if we can only get our politicians to do the right thing.
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