USPS must make efficient choices

I am responding to a letter published Sept. 20 in The Daily Progress headlined “Postal Service making wrong move.”

As readers are aware, the Postal Service is conducting an area mail-processing study to evaluate the consolidation of mail-processing operations at the Charlottesville Processing and Distribution Facility with those of the new Richmond Proces-sing and Distribution Center. An AMP study involves a review of mail processing and transportation operations of one postal facility and the feasibility of combining all or part of these operations with another facility.

In order to provide efficient service for our customers, the Postal Ser-vice must constantly examine how it can improve operations to meet customer needs. And, key to this effort is identifying where and when it can best take advantage of technological advances in mail processing and distribution to improve overall operations and customer service.

The new Richmond facility, a project that began three years ago, is a 716,000 square foot building with great processing capacity and state of the art equipment. This allows us to handle larger volumes under one roof with greater efficiency.

The U.S. Postal Service is facing one of the most difficult challenges in its history. There has been a continual decline in mail volume over the past decade. The current economic downturn has led to an even greater decline in volume, with the loss of more than 20 billion pieces this past year alone. The Postal Service has to realign its processing and delivery network to match its resources with mail volume. Consolidating some postal operations only makes logical business sense given the economic realities. It would be fiscally irresponsible not to do so.

We recognize the employee and community concerns associated with an area mail processing review. As we undertake this process, you can be assured we will seek the public’s input and give full consideration to their concerns before making any decision.  The community can also be assured that the process will not involve changes to local mail delivery or lobby retail services as we remain committed to maintaining and improving service to our customers.