European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 07, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Nail As world speeds up postal service slows Down you want % my 77ie old image of the mail Carrier was one of a dedicated worker. Instructor Chuck Lilly right shows How to operate a multilane optical character Reader at the postal training Center in Norman okla. By Connie Cass the associated press t  everyday act  a letter drops into the darkness of the Blue curbside Box the lid clans shut behind it and in the mind of the sender wherever that letter is going it s As Good As there. But is it really roughly one out of five letters does t arrive on time. A few never arrive. This year a record amount of mail was delayed and a chorus of complaints Rose up from the disillusioned. I Don t have any Faith at All in the mail said Therese Morris a bookkeeper in Herndon a. Sometimes a letter from Morris to her parents in Florida arrives in three Days sometimes it takes two weeks. A $10,000 Stock certificate she sent by registered mail was lost. /.", _ t of course complaints about the Post office Are As perennial As complaints about the weather. But the Sun has no Competition. The . Postal service is losing customers such As Bonnie Matthews a Baltimore Illustrator who sends by fax machine the rough sketches she used to mail. I love writing letters and correspondence i think it s More personal than the fax she said. But i can t rely on the mail As fax machines computer email and electronic Money transfers become commonplace even letters delivered on time seem hopelessly slow. Snail mail they Call it on the internet. The postal service is in a double bind it s struggling to deliver today s torrent of mail More than a half billion pieces a Day. And it s facing High tech competitors that in the future May Siphon off the mail that s cheapest to deliver. The past year has been calamitous businesses and charities that mail millions of third class solicitations began noticing poor delivery last fall. The disabled american veterans estimates it lost $1 million in donations when fund raising letters were delayed. In november the Bottom dropped out said Max Hart the group s chief fund Raiser. I be been Here 25 years and i Don t Ever remember a delivery problem that  there was mail mayhem in Chicago. A ton of missing letters and packages was found stashed inside a letter Carrier s closet. Caches of undelivered mail were found hidden in a postal truck piled in the Back of Post offices and burning under a viaduct. After the postal service moved sorting of Bronx mail out of the new York City Borough angry residents complained about vital mail received weeks late medical test results tax records exam scores invitations. It s upsetting when social Security checks Are late said Frank Hordich who has lived at the same Bronx address since 1945 and never had mail trouble of this magnitude  Congress took notice of Washington . S dismal delivery record. In May postal inspectors found Large volumes of mail addressed to the government with dates As old As february in the City s main Post office. Postmaster general Marvin Runyon said some of the problems were caused by workers and managers who ignored Standard procedures and neglected customers. That s being changed he  have to get people to understand that we work for Here s a snapshot of the . Postal service employees 715,000, making it the nation s second largest work Force behind the military. 1993 sales $47 billion making it the 11th largest . Company private or Public. Number of Post offices 40,000. 1993 mail volume 171 billion pieces expected to Rise by 3 percent this year. Percentage of mail that is first class letters Bills cards 54 second class magazines and newspapers 6 third class bulk advertising 38 fourth class parcels 0.4. The associated press customers said Runyon a former Auto executive hired in 1992 to revamp the postal service. The postal service s own Survey shows that nationwide delivery Speed fell to a record Low at the Start of 1994. Only 79 percent of first class letters sent within overnight delivery areas usually a City and its suburbs arrived on time. With the Spring thaw local delivery improved to 82 percent on time still Down two Points from the year before according to the quarterly Survey conducted by Price waterhouse since 1990. Letters sent Long distances due to arrive within three Days were late almost a Quarter of the time. But an associated press poll found most americans give the postal. Service High  Overall even when mail is a Little late. Forty two percent of those surveyed predicted that a letter mailed within their local area would fail to arrive overnight. Yet 63 percent said the postal service was doing a Good or excellent Job. The Telephone poll of 1,005 adults was conducted in May by ice Survey research group of Media pa., part of aus consultants. It had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage Points. Fourteen percent of the respondents said in the past month they had chosen some other delivery method such ase mail or Federal express because of dissatisfaction with first class mail. The postal service has a Legal monopoly on first class mail but rarely enforces it against private companies or individuals using private overnight delivery services. And that monopoly does not apply to the new electronic options such ase mail and faxes. It s unlikely that americans will abandon mail in the foreseeable future however. A grandchild s Crayon picture the pleasing heft of a set Catalon engraved wedding invitations these will be a i to replace by computer. Many advertisers will still want put something tangible into a potential buyer s hands. And some people won t be Able to afford alternative the mail. They will still need a postal service that reach every outpost of the country at a single rate that is within their grasp. The question is How to keep Stamps affordable if the postal service loses the types of mail most vulnerable to electronic Competition business to business mail Bill payments some advertising. Those Are also the easiest types of mail to handle. Business to business first class mail has decreased by 10 percent since 1988. So far the decline has been More than offset by growth in mail sent Between businesses and Homes mostly Bills and junk mail. Only 5 percent of the mail is personal correspondence. The postal service which has t received tax Money since it was restructured in 1971, must earn enough to support its network of trucks and Post offices and More than 700,000 workers. Service fiascos or rising prices could Chase away big business mailers who Are already weighing alternatives to the postal service. If service suffers they re dead said Gene Del Polito executive director of the advertising mail marketing association. If rates go too High they re  on the Price Side Runyon has won Praise for staving off an expected rate increase for a year and for his plans to modernize the rate Structure. He has asked the postal rate commission to approve increases of about 10 percent for Early next year. A first class stamp would Cost 32 cents. Runyon it s the service Side where Runyon has come under attack. The Trade groups and lawmakers and unions who atch the mail blame blunders by Runyon for the drop in i t Iver.  the biggest error the postal service paid some Iru i experienced employees to leave. . Months into office. Runyon announced plans a Arv retirement incentives he hoped would Weed out 00 in niggers or As he put it people who Don t touch.1 , it tuned out to be a tremendous mistake said rep. William Clayd to chairman of the House Post office committee. The buyout plan was open to almost everybody. And it was t managers who jumped at the offer of six months . Seventy one percent of the Early retirees were hands on workers some 34,000 mail carriers mail Sorters clerks. Many were not replaced and new workers who were hired need time and training to learn the Job. In the meantime service suffers said William Burrus executive vice president of the american postal workers Union. The buyout also meant Long hours for those who remained. Overtime reached record Levels More than 10 percent of All work hours. In hard hit Post offices employees worked 50-and 60-hour weeks. St class tips want to give a first class letter the Best shot at getting there on time Here Are some tips,. Double Check the address and zip code. Accuracy is even More important now that much of the sorting is done by machines. Be precise. A letter addressed to 1 St Street May not make it to North 1st Street or 1st Avenue. There Are 126 streets named peach tree in Atlanta alone. Type the address sorting machines can t read handwriting so Handwritten mail is set aside for postal workers to sort which takes longer. If you have a computer use a program that prints the bar code used by postal service sorting centers on the letter. That saves a step at the Post office and reduces the Chance of error. Use White or Pale coloured envelopes. Dark red May look festive at Christmas but it does t provide enough contrast for the machines to read. Use Correct postage and a return address so your mail won t end up at the dead letter office. The associated press working so Many extra hours people gel sick people. Get tired people stay Home people get  said Vince Sombrotto president of the National association of letter carriers. Delivery slipped and costs increased the postal service had expected to lose $1.3 billion this year which would be made up by the rate increase next year. Earlier this summer Runyon conceded the loss could be closer to $2 billion. Yet he maintains the buyout was for the Best getting rid of High paid workers who were ready to go anyway will save $1 billion a year in salaries Runyon said and overtime has begun to decline. Some employees will continue to work overtime until the postal service finishes installing its new sorting machines. Staffing Levels have been held Down at Post offices waiting for automation which allows the mail to be sorted faster with fewer people. The new machines were supposed to be up and running nationwide next year but now the goal is july 1997. Runyon said More time was needed to train workers to use the Sorters properly. The delay angers businesses that depend on the mail. Runyon describes Many of this year s delivery problems As temporary setbacks caused by his sweeping reforms. He has twice reorganized top management shifted thousands of employees around the country and called for an end to the military style management that causes workers so much stress. Look at any businesses that have made any big changes. You la find that there is a dip in what their employees think about them in what their customers think about them in their services Runyon said Ini a recent interview. But then you re going to work your Way through that. And  go Back  at the same time the postal service is searching for new roles for the future. Runyon has floated All sorts of ideas. Maybe Post offices could offer computer email services. Or they could form a partnership to deliver packages ordered through interactive to. Or social Security benefits could be dispensed through electronic kiosks in Post Oil ices. They Are Runyon admits far out  but he Hopes someday some of them will be is commonplace As the curbside Mailbox. 16 the stars and stripes wednesday september 7, 1994 the stars and stripes 17