Faced with a dramatic drop-off in the amount of mail it processes, the U.S. Postal Service is looking for ways to cut back, including offering early retirement to employees and reducing hours at some offices.
Local postmasters say the volume of letter mail has declined significantly in recent years with the rise of other forms of technology like e-mail.
“We’ve seen that volume drop pretty much right off the table,” said Selinsgrove postmaster Mike Wolfberg.
Chuck Shultz, postmaster at the Sunbury Post Office, estimates the office’s letter mail is down about 20 percent just from last year.
On the other hand, they say, parcel delivery is up, partly due to a rise in online purchasing which has helped balance out the drop in letter mail.
“We’re turning into a more parcel delivery service,” said Wolfberg, a 28-year veteran of the postal service. “What we’re doing now is counter to what our delivery service was based on.”
Nonetheless, local post offices have had to cut back on hours, some closing their customer service window on the Saturday before a Monday holiday.
“Why have the manpower here if we don’t have the business?” said Tina Crawford, postmaster in Danville.
Shultz said they’ve been advised by managers in the Harrisburg district office to cut back hours by about 6 percent, which sometimes means fewer people manning the window on certain days.
According to Crawford, the U.S. Postal Service is looking to reduce its workforce by about 40,000 people nationwide. Those 55 and over with 20 years of service or anyone with 25 years on the job have been offered early retirement, but only 3,700 have taken the offer, she said.
Crawford said some of her employees have mentioned taking it, “but there’s no incentive for them to go.”
“In this area, I don’t know anyone who’s taken it who wasn’t already planning on retiring,” said Shultz.
Wolfberg said the Selinsgrove post office has lost some employees through attrition, but none of those had taken the early-out option offered by the postal service.
“We’re not allowed to rehire. Like a lot of businesses, we’re being asked to do more with less,” he said.
Internal rumblings indicate the postal service plans to lay off many individuals with five or six years of experience or less “because they’re not getting the numbers they need with the early outs,” Wolfberg said. But that will probably start in the major cities first.
In spite of the setbacks, the local postmasters say it won’t affect the service they provide to the public.
-- E-mail comments to rscott@dailyitem.com.
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