PUBLIC EXAMINES PROCESSING CENTER; KEEFE SAYS MAIL EFFICIENCY UP AGAIN

Cape Girardeau Postmaster Michael Keefe told visitors Sunday at an open house for the new mail processing center here that the center's efficiency continues to improve.

The new Regional Mail Processing Center, situated at Cape West Business Park, opened last fall but didn't expand to full operation until February.

Sunday's open house was an opportunity for the public to see the new facility and for postal officials to answer their questions, said Larry Schafer, a postal service marketing representative.

Schafer said there were few complaints Sunday from visitors of the center, who apparently have noticed recent improvement in the center's reliability.

"One of the things I've really heard when people leave here, they've been saying, `Now, I understand why there have been some problems,'" he said. "It's a big operation and everyone who's spoken to me has been very positive.

"I feel like at least they're more educated and informed and that helps them understand a little why we had some of the problems in the beginning."

Keefe, who was giving tours of the facility at the open house, explained that when the new processing center opened, employees were faced with operating new automated equipment.

The postmaster said the center is nearing the overnight, on-time efficiency mark it was operating at before the new facility was built.

"We're committed to make 95 percent overnight on time," he said. "We were at 95 percent before, which dropped to 68 percent in November.

"That's horrible and everyone let us know about it. We're back up to 92 to 93 percent overnight on time, and we're shooting for 95 percent."

Keefe asked for the public's help. He said that whenever possible, customers should type or clearly print addresses on envelopes or, if possible, use an address label.

"We handle one-half million to 1 million pieces of mail in a night," he said. "Even if we make 1 percent error, we've made a lot of errors."

The regional center processes all the mail from Cape Girardeau, Sikeston, Poplar Bluff and Flat River.

Schafer said that as postal employees better learn the new processing system, efficiency and reliability will continue to improve.

"It's like night and day comparing the new automated center with what we did before," he said. "But we've improved dramatically since the first of the year, and I think it will continue to improve right on up through this year."

Schafer estimated about 500 people attended the event, which included tours of the center, a number of informational displays and gifts for the visitors.

Keefe guided the tours, where he showed step-by-step now the mail is handled, sorted and processed. Much of the work now is automated, and Keefe told visitors how mistakes can be made at each step in the process.

One of the first machines to sort mail separates large or thick envelopes, and aligns the mail so that the addresses are pointed in one direction.

"This machine sorts 25,000 letters an hour," Keefe said. "A good clerk by hand can do about 1,000 an hour and our old machines could get 2,000 to 8,000 an hour.

"That means we're saving money, but it also means that occasionally it will tear up mail when thick letters get jammed."

In a single second, the "optical character sorter" takes the mail, reads the address, stamps an appropriate bar code, verifies the code, and sorts the mail into appropriate slots.

"This machine handles 30,000 pieces of mail in an hour," said Keefe. "A good clerk can handle about 3,000 by hand."

After the mail is coded, Keefe said it is again sorted to a bin marked for its destination. As with most of the automated equipment, some mail still is rejected and must be hand-sorted.

The postmaster also pointed out an enclosed cat walk throughout the processing center. Above all the center's various work stations the "lookout gallery" has tiny, darkened windows spaced about 30 feet apart.

Keefe said mail inspectors make unannounced visits to the center and monitor the operation, undetected, from the lookout gallery. "The inspectors are there to protect your mail," he said.