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Learn about post office study

By Letter from the Postal Service
Published June 14, 2006

Tonight the Postal Service will hold a public meeting at the St. Petersburg Main Library, 3745 Ninth Ave. N., to discuss a study we are conducting regarding two facilities located in St. Petersburg and Tampa. The study, known as Area Mail Processing, seeks to determine if we can take advantage of excess capacity at our Tampa facility by consolidating some outgoing mail processing and transportation activities that are being run out of our St. Petersburg operation.

Why do the study? Since 1998, first-class mail volume has declined by more than 11-billion pieces nationwide. And we have seen these changes locally as well. This shift is mainly due to the public's increasing use of electronic options - more e-mails, faxes and electronic bill payments. This decline has freed up space on the high-speed equipment that processes this mail, giving us the ability to try to maximize those machines.

Consolidating operations is nothing new for the Postal Service, we've made changes before. Consider this: In the early days we processed mail at more than 10,000 facilities every night. Forty years ago there were about 2,000 processing locations, and today there are about 400 processing sites. The simple fact is: We've made changes along the way in our operations that track mailing trends and technology improvements.

I want to emphasize the proposals being considered will be transparent to our customers. The St. Petersburg Post Office will continue to operate as usual, and for customers concerned about losing their city's postmark, it will continue to be available. As far as the St. Petersburg Processing and Distribution Center is concerned, only one of the behind-the-scenes operations would be affected and no career postal employee would lose employment because of the change.

We understand there is concern about the study, which is why we are seeking public input. The Postal Service is committed to providing prompt, reliable, secure and affordable service. And we intend to constantly improve our operations to keep this commitment to our customers.

-- John Hoyle Manager, St. Petersburg Processing & Distribution Center, 3135 First Ave N, St. Petersburg, FL 33730-9997

[Last modified June 14, 2006, 05:34:47]