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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."