Postal Service: Change in local mail pickup time going smoothly

The local change in the U.S. Postal Service's first-class mail pickup times to 1:30 p.m. instead of 5 p.m. has gone according to plan, the Postal Service says, but that doesn't mean local residents and businesses are happy about it, or even know about it.

On July 27, the collection time of first-class mail placed in blue mailboxes around Cape Girardeau officially was changed from 5 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and 2 p.m. Saturday, with the latest regional collection time for stamped letters and large envelopes at 4 p.m. Monday through Friday at the Richard G. Wilson Processing and Distribution Facility.

Postal Service regional spokesman Richard Watkins said so far the transition has gone smoothly, and originating mail from Cape Girardeau is traveling to a St. Louis processing center and coming back the next day, which is key in the process. The collection time was moved up to allow for the transportation of mail from Cape Girardeau to St. Louis, as work at the Cape Girardeau facility winds down as part of a Postal Service cost-reduction plan.

First-class mail is the most profitable type of mail, and Watkins said the USPS had to deal with the reality of fewer people sending first-class letters and cards. Changes had to be made because the mail volume shrunk, and the revenue simply was not there.

"Our revenues are finite," he said. "And as they decrease with a significant decrease in mail volume, we've had to take steps over the last several years [in] the way we collect, sort and deliver our customers' mail."

Watkins said first-class mail is down more than 28 percent, and the Postal Service is losing $25 million a day nationwide. Although first-class mail still is a large part of the post office's revenue, when the mail volume drops, so does revenue.

"We simply had to make changes to accommodate the ways in which people are using the postal service, and that has changed in the last couple years," Watkins said.

Chain reaction

The lack of first-class mail starts a chain reaction: The less mail sent, the less there is to sort, transport and deliver, which means fewer employees are needed.

Watkins said the USPS has made the changes without a single layoff, but the Postal Service can't operate the same if mail volume is decreasing. The USPS thinks the earlier collection time is a "reasonable accommodation."

"For the most part, our residential and business customers understand that," Watkins said.

Sandy Boston, senior vice president of operations at First Missouri State Bank, said the change has been inconvenient for the bank because its business does not stop at 4 p.m., the latest time first-class mail may be dropped off at the processing plant. Earlier pickup times affect when customers receive statements from the bank, when they used to receive them the day after they were mailed, she said. Customers now have to wait at least an extra day for the mail to travel to and from St. Louis, she said.

"I think it's really been a negative [for] the community, myself," Boston said. "Because it does affect our customers."

Julie Farhadi was at the post office in Cape Girardeau on Tuesday. She said the change affects paying bills, and questioned how sending mail from Cape Girardeau to St. Louis and back saves money.

Joy Johnson, another post office visitor, does not pay a majority of her bills online, and said the change would have consequences for mailing her bills.

Several people at the post office Tuesday did not know of the change of the first-class mail collection time, and were not concerned about it.

More changes in how mail is handled and delivered are slated, and by early next year, Watkins said mail destined for the Southeast Missouri will be sorted at the St. Louis mail processing center. No jobs will be lost with the changes, he said, and the processing center in Cape Girardeau will not be closed in the process. The facility will remain open, but employees at the processing center no longer will sort mail and will instead conduct other operations with the postal service, Watkins said.

"There will continue to be operations at the plant in the foreseeable future," he said.

adowning@semissourian.com

388-3632

Pertinent address:

320 N. Frederick St., Cape Girardeau, MO

475 Kell Farm Drive, Cape Girardeau, MO