MAIL PROCESSING CENTER: NEW POSTAL SERVICE FACILITY TO HOLD OPEN HOUSE

The public next month can have its first look at Cape Girardeau's new mail processing facility.

"We have tentatively set April 5 for an open house," said Larry Shafer, an account representative with the U.S. Postal Service Marketing & Communications. "This will give people an opportunity to see the new mail-sorting machinery in action."

The new facility, situated at Cape West Business Park, processes all mail from four zip codes.

"When the center opened in November, it sorted all incoming and outbound mail for two zip codes Cape Girardeau and Sikeston," said Shafer. "Last month the center's operation expanded to include mail from Poplar Bluff and Flat River. We're easily talking about a half-million pieces of mail a day."

Shafer said operations at the facility haven't been glitch-free, and the postal service has registered a number of complaints due to delays.

"That was to be expected," he said. "We anticipated that there would be some start-up problems. There have been delays and this has created complaints. But we're working on smoothing things out."

Shafer cited a number of causes for the early problems, but said the primary causes are the large volume of mail handled at the center by new employees.

Also, the sorting process is new and requires a number of preparatory steps that workers are still learning.

"This is a totally new process," said Shafer. "Any time you do something on this scale from scratch, you're going to run into difficulties. We are dealing with them, however. We have clerks and supervisors working 12-hour days."

The automation process includes three machines that perform various duties, Shafer said.

"The `Mark Facer Canceler' cancels the stamp and places the postmark on mail," he said. "The mail then moves to the `Optical Character Readers,' where the letters are scanned.

"If it can read the address block, it will spray a bar code on the lower right portion of the envelop and separate it into various blocks."

The final machine, the "Bar Code Sorter" separates the mail for delivery to various locations within the zip code.

"That's where the zip code-plus four comes into play," said Shafer. The "plus-four" numbers will designate a letter for a certain area within the regular zip code.

The address block is an important part of the process, Shafer added.

"Anything that can not be read by the optical character reader will go into a reject box," he said. "This mail must be sorted by hand."

Shafer said he is available to meet with any business or group to discuss the address block.

"The perfect address block is typewritten in all caps and no punctuation," said Shafer. "We realize that we'll always receive mail which is hand written.

"But, if we can get the majority of business mail in readable format, we can handle the overflow of hand-addressed mail."

Shafer added that businesses can qualify for possible mailing discounts by following the guidelines.

Shafer said the new automatic sorting process is needed because of increasing volumes of mail handled by the postal service.

"The old process worked fine for years," he said. "But the United States has more mail than any eight countries in the world and our rates are the lowest. The new process is less costly, and we can move more mail, more efficiently."

Mail officials say that with machine sorting, 1,000 pieces of mail can be processed for about $3. "With manual labor that cost is estimated at $35," said Shafer.

He said the new process also will alter mailing times for the Cape Girardeau area.

"Mail placed in boxes at the post office will not be picked up after 6 p.m. until the next day," he said. "Mail in other boxes around town will not be picked up after 5 p.m."

Shafer said mail from a box at the new mail-sorting facility, will be collected until 7 p.m.