 | The Cavalier daily Tuesday, February 27, 1973 |  |
Deteriorating Service And Lack Of Desire
delivery. "We are installing
modern mechanization and
automation which in the past
had only been concentrated in
very few post offices," Mr. Del
Grosso said. "Through this
modernization, we feel that the
service to the public will be
improved."
The Postal Service is missing
no opportunity to save money.
The old Post Office
Department was a financial
disaster, and it is hoped that
changing the Postal Service
from a government
organization to a private
corporation will reverse this
trend.
Even though postal reforms
were designed to save money,
official figures reveal that the
Postal Service is losing more
money now than it did under
governmental supervision. Net
losses had been steadily
spiraling upward until 1971,
reaching a peak that year of
$204 million. Last year; losses
were down 14 per cent, at
$175 million. However, this is
still $9 million higher than the
figure for 1970, the year of the
postal reforms.
When asked if the new
Postal Service is saving money,
Mr. Del Grosso said, "Since
postal reforms, I think you can
see that we are making the
progress that we predicted."
Statistics do not show definite
progress, however, and only
time will reveal whether or not
the organization and methods
really will produce a trend in
the right direction.
One of the major
money-saving strategies is
employee cutbacks. The
number of postal employees
has decreased from 740,000 in
1969 to 680,000 today.
"The decreases were
primarily in smaller post
offices," Mr. Del Grosso
explained. "Through the use of
mechanization, we have been
able to reduce the number of
employees in the postal
system.
"By utilizing mechanization
and man," he continued, "we
have been able to speed up the
operation and reduce the
number of employees that we
need." Later, Mr. Del Grosso
bluntly stated that there was
no problem posed by a lack of
personnel.
Personnel decreases have
largely been accomplished by
failing to replace employees
who resign or retire. In fact,
there has been a freeze on
hiring new workers for the past
one and a half years.
CD/Andy Ballentine
A Letter Carrier:
"Piled Over With Work"
Our Charlottesville mailman
disagrees with Mr. Del Grosso.
He does see a need for more
employees to even keep up
with present delivery speeds.
"We're getting all the work
piled on top of us," he said.
"For instance, if a new route
opens up, they don't hire
anybody to take it. They just
expand the routes already in
existence.
Another employee in the
Charlottesville post office,
when asked why mail is slow
between here and Washington,
flatly replied, "Oh, it's because
of the cutbacks in employees."
Perhaps money-saving
techniques are needed, but an
ever-present danger is that such
techniques result in even less
service than already offered.
A conspicuous example is
the fact that collections at
sidewalk mail boxes have been
reduced in an effort to save
money. This cutback is a poor
reflection on an organization
which is publicly committed to
offering better service.
Mr. Del Grosso defended
economizing efforts by saying,
"We are influenced by the
same cost factors that a big
business is. We have to buy
transportation, we have to buy
electricity, we have to buy
telephone service, we have to
buy painters, builders,
mechanics. All these things
influence your costs."
Postal officials believe they
will be in a better financial
position this year. A $500
million rate increase was
scheduled for this past
January, but officials were
confident enough to cancel it.
Mr. Del Grosso thinks this
rate increase could not have
been avoided under the old
Post Office Department.
"We're trying to handle the
Postal Service as a business
from the standpoint of
controlling costs," he said. "At
the same, time, we're
controlling the price that our
customers have to pay."
Becoming more specific,
Mr. Del Grosso said, "We are
hoping that through
automation programs that I
have discussed earlier that we
can perhaps absorb some of
these costs that are inevitable."
Solution
High postal officials think
the solution to the Postal
Service's economic woes lies in
private enterprise. They are
committed to competing with
private mail delivery
organizations. However, the
Postal Service in some cases has
not even been successful in
competing with the mail
delivery performance
established before postal
reforms.
Many business firms feel the
mail delivery is too unreliable
to be trusted. Frequently, they
will send an executive to
personally deliver an important
document. He will fly out to
another city, hand over the
letter or parcel to the
company's office in that city,
and catch the next flight home.
The area of bulk mail
painfully demonstrates that the
Postal Service would not be
competitive to a reliable, fast
private delivery company.
Organizations such as United
Parcel Service provide a
tempting alternative, attracting
an ever-increasing number of
customers with their more
reliable delivery.
Small-time entrepreneurs
also see the mail delivery
business as an opportunity to
make some money by
competing with the Postal
Service. One such competitor,
Independent Postal Service,
even has its employees wear
uniforms and carry mail bags
similar to those of the Postal
Service.
According to Mr. Del
Grosso, the Postal Service is
attempting to become
competitive in this field also.
The Service is separating bulk
mail into a separate network,
apart from regular first class
mail, and channeling it through
facilities specially designed to
handle parcel post.
Speaking of the private
United Parcel Post, Mr. Del
Grosso said, "They have made
tremendous inroads in our
parcel post area, and we don't
deny this. But I think the
secret to our future success will
be in the establishment of our
bulk network.
"Right now, we probably
are not competitive in some
areas with United Parcel," he
continued. "But we intend to
be competitive in the future
and in the very near future we
intend to give the kind of
service that American people
want."
More ominous than new
competition is the fact that
even important employees are
complaining about the Postal
Service's performance. In some
areas, conversations with
Service workers reveal a
discouragement, a disgust with
the slow delivery.
An important career
employee in a southern city
recently expressed his extreme
discouragement and
disappointment with the state
of the Postal Service: "At the
Post Office [this year] I
experienced what was perhaps
the most frustrating year in the
29 that I have been with the
business."
Just this past summer, he
was enthusiastic about the
prospects of improved service.
Now, he hopes he can hold on
for a few more years so he can
retire.
Brush Off
Mr. Del Grosso brushed this
example off, saying, "In an
organization of 680,000
people, you do get some
diverse opinions of the Postal
Service.
"I'm sure this is one of CD/Andy Ballentine "We Have To Buy Transportation"
probably a few who are
dissatisfied with the Postal
Mailtrucks:
explained. "I'd say in general
most postal employees are
happy."
Charlottesville mail teller
W.C. Broyles disagreed with
Mr. Del Grosso.
Mr. Broyles has perceived
a degeneration in service even
since the postal reforms.
"There's been a general
deterioration and lack of desire
all the way through the
organization, from the
Postmaster General all the way
down," he charged.
Despite the problems facing
the Postal Service, many
customers are becoming irate.
An editorial in the Wilmington,
Delaware Evening Journal sums
up the mood of many people:
One thing has been made
perfectly clear: The U.S. Postal
Service cares more about
keeping its budget low than
about delivering the mail....The
mail service will never improve
as long as it remains in the
hands of the present
management.
Mr. Del Grosso defends his
position though, saying, "When
you have a massive plan to
modernize all of the postal
plants in the United States,
there are bound to be some
milestones that will be missed.
"But we are trying to
exercise all of the controls that
we can to meet the program
objectives that we identified to
the Congress when the postal
legislation was enacted a few
years ago."
Perhaps Mr. Del Grosso's
statement accurately reflects a
Postal Service earnestly striving
to offer the public a better
product as soon as possible.
However, opinions differ both
inside and outside the
organization, and many critics
are trying to force a
showdown.
Only one thing will silence
the criticism: satisfactory mail
service.
| The Cavalier daily Tuesday, February 27, 1973 | |