Post office bustles behind the scenes

SANDPOINT — There was a time, not so very long ago, when the U.S. Postal Service looked like wobbly- kneed boxer on the ropes, waiting for a challenging heavyweight like UPS or FedEx to deliver a headshot and send it to the mat.

But like a time-proven veteran of the ring, USPS showed that it still had a few moves, a few good punches left to throw. Surprisingly, the post office has managed to compete most effectively on the shipping companies’ own ground by delivering packages just as quickly, but often considerably cheaper, than the other guys.

A Consumer Reports survey, conducted near the end of 2008, sent a paperback book to multiple recipients in several states. All of the shipments used the recommended packaging for next-day delivery and all of the books arrived right on time. The biggest difference was price.

USPS got the job done for a flat right of, at the time, $16.50, while UPS and FedEx — both of which calculate fees based on weight and distance — charged between $29.55-$62.87 and $27.48-$54.57 respectively.

The post office was forced to find its legs and get back into the shipping game because first class mail, its traditional cash cow, has all but gone dry. On Aug. 5, USPS reported a 20-percent decline in mail volume since 2007, most of that attributed to the common letter being replaced by e-mail and online bill payments.

“That kind of mail, first class mail, was always the bread and butter of the postal service,” said Jerry Hahn, a supervisor of customer service for USPS.

Recent moves, Hahn added, have allowed the Postal Service to close the shipping gap with features such as Click-N-Ship, which lets customers do everything from calculating postage for virtually any destination to creating shipping labels online. Beyond that, USPS offers free package pickup and free shipping supplies for flat rate priority mail — from envelopes to boxes. Customers click the desired size of packaging they need at the USPS website and the post office delivers the supplies at no charge.

“We deliver bundles and bundles of this packaging for free every day,” said Linda Oldridge, postmaster at the Sandpoint post office. “We’re doing our darnedest to keep that business coming our way and we’re doing a good job of it.”

“The postal service has started to pick up steam with these various options,” Hahn said. “We started out way behind UPS and FedEx, but we’ve turned the tide and caught up with the competition.”

To say that USPS has embraced the Internet stops well short of describing the new face of the post office. Almost every service that can be found by standing in line in real time can be found online for less time, including buying stamps, putting a hold on mail, changing address, finding a P.O. box, tracking packages and applying for passports.

“One of the biggest things the public is still missing out on is the USPS website,” Hahn said. “Everything you can do in a local post office is now available online.”

The biggest competitive advantage the postal service has to offer still comes with its city carriers and rural route drivers who, collectively, make up a delivery network that remains unmatched in scope. Even with downsizing that equates to 36,000 fewer employees at the national level this year alone — the Sandpoint Post Office has lost a few employees through attrition in recent years but has had no layoffs, according to Hahn — USPS processed 177 billion pieces of mail last year at an average of 584 million letters and packages delivered each day. And despite a reduced workforce, the USPS has managed to turn in an on-time delivery rate of nearly 97 percent for items such as overnight First Class Mail so far this year.

All of this downsizing and cost cutting — $10 billion-worth over the past three years — has created some bumps in the road for the USPS. Since it is not supported by taxpayer dollars and does not receive federal funding, the agency has struggled in the recent economic downturn to stem its losses, in much the same way other companies have fought to keep their financial boats afloat. One of the biggest changes made by USPS came with a trend known as retail standardization, which attempts to ensure that customers will have the same experience no matter where they go to send their mail.

“The idea is that you could walk in here or you could walk into a post office in New York City and you’d be addressed with the same information,” Oldridge said.

And it has become a very long list of information, partly due to the fact that USPS must comply with air traffic safety regulations — hence the questions about fragile, liquid, hazardous or perishable materials — but also because of the spate of new products and services each desk clerk is required to mention during every transaction.

“We do that to educate people about our products,” the Sandpoint postmaster said. “And yes, we do have a lot more things to mention.”

For some, the dark side of retail standardization surfaced when the national office of USPS mandated that local post offices remove bulletin boards, stamp-vending machines, clocks and even some trash cans from their sites. It has been five years since the postal service implemented those changes and the griping has abated somewhat, but never completely disappeared.

“A lot of things happened at about the same time and we were not very popular,” said Oldridge. “We’re not consulted on these changes, but we do have to comply.”

One thing that hasn’t undergone sweeping change is what happens behind the scenes at the post office — the backstage area where truckloads of mail arrive before dawn to be sorted and sent out to their various destinations.

In Sandpoint, that process starts at 5 a.m., when the first of two trucks rolls in from Spokane with the day’s mail. Mail clerks break down and sort the mail, after which the carriers put it into delivery order and take off on their routes.

“There’s a hustle and bustle back here every morning,” Hahn said. “It’s busy from the time the first clerk arrives to when the last carrier goes out.”

The three biggest mail days still cluster around Christmas, Mother’s Day and Tax Day, followed closely by Labor Day, when items are being mailed to college-bound students and catalogers fill mailboxes with their holiday books.

Rural route carriers go to great lengths to get the mail through, traveling to addresses so remote that, in a relationship that has been kept an industry secret, even UPS and FedEx drop some packages off at the local post office to have it finalize the delivery.

That “neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night” heart still beats in the chest of the postal service, according to Hahn. Postal carriers don’t rue the day those words became attached to their profession, he added, they relish it.

“They actually take great pride in that,” Hahn said. “Our city carriers walk up to seven miles a day, fending off dogs and insects and carrying 38-40 pounds on timed routes. Our rural route carriers sometimes have to go to great extremes to get people what they need. They know the people on their routes by name and take great interest in them.

“Postal carriers not only deliver the mail, they’re part of the social fabric,” he added.

“They are the eyes and ears of a community and, many times, the first responders in a situation,” Oldridge pointed out. “If mail builds up or something seems amiss at someone’s home, it’s the mail carrier who is the first one to notice if grandma has an issue.”

One local carrier — recently retired Rod Dosher, who delivered mail for 30 years — developed a reputation for making his rounds in shorts, even in the worst blizzards and on sub-zero degree days. For many, Dosher typified the almost superhuman drive it took to get the mail through. Now that he has hung up his mailbag, the truth can be told.

“He cheated a little bit,” Hahn said. “He had neoprene on underneath those shorts.”

For more information on USPS and its history, visit: www.usps.com.