LITTLE ROCK — As the U.S. Postal Service looks for ways to save money after posting a net loss of $8.5 billion, one possibility is trucking more of Harrison’s mail to Fayetteville and back.
“We’re looking at everything because of the decline in volume and loss in revenue,” said Leisa Tolliver-Gay, a Postal Service spokesman.
“Area mail processing,” as the service calls it, involves the consolidation of different elements of the mail process and has become more prevalent in recent years with the decline in first-class mail volume, according to the service’s website. Between 1998-2008 the volume of this type of letter has declined by 19 billion pieces, or 29 percent.
Tolliver-Gay said the Postal Service has to consider options for increasing efficiency and lowering costs. She said there are no definite plans for changes to Harrison’s post office, but a study is being conducted.
Customers of the Harrison post office are being invited to learn more about the study at a meeting set for 7 p.m. Wednesday at North Arkansas College’s John Paul Hammerschmidt Conference Center. The meeting will also be open for public comment.
The Fayetteville processing and distribution facility has machines that can process mail faster than those in Harrison, Tolliver-Gay said. She said the devices, automatic facing and canceling machines, can process 32,000 pieces of mail an hour.
Harrison handles about 85,000-100,000 pieces of mail a day, Tolliver-Gay said. She said Harrison is automated but that the machines are not as fast as Fayetteville’s.
The changes could save the service $360,000 and affect five jobs, according to information on the service’s website.
Tolliver-Gay said she couldn’t provide any specifics about how any consolidation would occur or how much would be saved. She said there are no answers to such questions, because the study isn’t complete.
The one sure thing, she said, is that the study is not about eliminating any retail components of the post office.
“We’re not talking about taking the carriers out, we’re not talking about closing the window,” she said. “We’re just talking about moving the process.”
For Harrison postal workers, it’s hard to understand how shipping mail 148 miles round trip is going to save time and money, said Joshua Silvy, president of American Postal Workers Union Local 3930.
“Saying you can do something and actually trying to do it are two different things,” he said.
Silvy said he’s had trouble getting answers from the service and doesn’t see where the savings will come from or how the changes can be made without affecting customers. He said a portion of Harrison’s mail already is processed in Fayetteville and delivery is slowed because of it.
The first daily truck to Fayetteville is scheduled to leave at 6:30 p.m., but it has to wait on mail coming from Marshall, Silvy said. The problem is the Marshall truck doesn’t get to Harrison until 6:27 p.m., he said, and that sometimes it’s not humanly possible to get the mail transferred in three minutes.
Silvy said the box truck that goes to Fayetteville is at capacity. That means the service will need a bigger truck, which may mean a new contract. He said the public often puts the onus of the service’s finances on the workers, but in truth they’ve been doing more with less for some time.
While postal clerk jobs have been slashed, Silvy said, the number of management jobs increased.
“The postal service is shaped like a light bulb,” he said. “It’s top heavy.”
Silvy said the last time mail processes were changed in Harrison, management promised there would be no changes for customers but that didn’t happen. He said there are fewer clerks working, which means longer lines and postal carriers finishing their routes after dark.
Coin-operated stamp machines also were removed, Silvy said, so that leaves no way to buy postage after business hours. He said it now appears there will be changes to express mail standards, which could mean no next-day delivery in Harrison.
Silvy said he’s already seen customers get late fees on post office boxes because they waited to pay the bill, and it was late because it had to go through Fayetteville.
Batesville is in a similar situation and already has held a public meeting on the study, though just as many questions remain, said Debbie McKenzie, president of the American Postal Workers Union Local 660.
“The meeting was basically a formality of how the [study] has to go,” McKenzie said.
Details such as where the cost savings will come from are to be provided at a later date, McKenzie said. She said that management confirmed there would be same-day service adjustments, but they wouldn’t say where other than in the 726 area, which includes Harrison.
McKenzie said transportation issues were not addressed, other than mail from Little Rock would be brought to Batesville. Mail originating in Batesville, however, would be routed to Jonesboro, where it would arrive about 3 a.m., she said.
“There is no way the union sees that they’ll be able to bring the mail back the same day,” she said.
McKenzie said management has twice before tried to consolidate services and twice before been met with strong opposition. She said she asked why try again after the response in 2006 and 2008, and “management’s response was ‘because it’s 2010.’”
The prospect is confusing for Harrison residents such as Mike Boyer, who’s expressed his views in a letter to the editor of the Harrison newspaper.
“It seems like an awfully, awfully clumsy and inefficient way to do this whole situation,” Boyer said Friday in an interview. “I myself wouldn’t mind paying an extra nickel a stamp, but I don’t want to give an extra nickel and have them spend 6 cents to bring in a manager.”
Boyer said he’s a fan of the Postal Service and, though his son-in-law works there, he’s not a big union supporter. He said the system needs to be streamlined, which means looking at pensions and benefits.
It’s difficult to understand how trucking all the mail to Harrison will improve things, no matter the speed of Fayetteville’s sorting machines, Boyer said.
“How much faster do you have to be to throw that three hours into the mix,” he said.
Boyer said the postal service is an important part of the community, but if they want to be a business they need to start acting like one.
“Before they talk about cutting services, they need to ask, is there any way to make the services they have more efficient?” he said.
Arkansas, Pages 7 on 11/29/2010