Copyright 1999 Chicago Sun-Times, Inc.
Chicago
Sun-Times
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July 18, 1999, SUNDAY, Late Sports
Final Edition
SECTION: EDITORIAL; Pg. 23
LENGTH: 698 words
HEADLINE:
Mail clerks aren't first class
SOURCE: JOHN H. WHITE
BYLINE: Michelle Stevens
BODY:
Good news travels fast.
With less than three months to go in its
fiscal year, the U.S. Postal Service has a $ 1 billion surplus. If this keeps
up, it will end the year with a $ 200 million profit -- and customers
might avoid yet another increase in stamp prices.
Meanwhile, 94 percent
of first-class mail was delivered on time during the spring quarter. That is an
impressive performance, and the mail sorters and letter carriers deserve a pat
on the back.
Now, postal officials should focus on a continuing major
irritant: slow, surly clerks at the windows.
The long lines that
inevitably form are aggravating enough to make the most even-tempered customer
"go postal" -- or at least file a complaint.
If officials
don't do more to provide prompt and courteous service, they can expect
increasing public support for efforts to privatize the post office and let
professionals run it like a business.
Since the scandals of the
mid-1990s, Chicago's postmaster has done a good job building new facilities and
updating mail routes to accommodate the hundreds of new residents in those
high-rise condos that have been cropping up on the North Side, downtown and Near
South Side.
For the longest time, letter carriers took the brunt of
criticism about late deliveries and mail being lost, stolen or destroyed. In one
case, 200 pounds of mail was found burning under a viaduct on the South Side.
Earlier this year, hundreds of pieces of undelivered mail -- enough to
fill 36 large trash bags -- were carted from the burned-out home of a
retired letter carrier.
Now that most of the heat is off carriers, it
should be shifted to the neighborhood branch offices, where efficient service is
hit or miss, depending on where you live.
I've found that service always
has been good at the 22nd Street branch, and almost always slow at the Hyde Park
station. I stopped in there last week before heading to work, and spent 20
minutes in line waiting to mail a package. Only one of the four windows was
staffed. By the time I left, the line stretched to the back of the public area.
Memo to the branch manager: Step out of your office every now and then
and send some of those employees up front to wait on customers. Unless it's the
peak Christmas mailing season, there's no excuse for long lines.
In the
Uptown area, where Ald. Mary Ann Smith (48th) raised a ruckus about slow and
misdelivered mail in her ward a few years back, service is better now. But there
is much room for improvement, said Greg Harris, Smith's chief of staff, who
noted that on a recent Friday, only one window was open at the Uptown station,
and a ward employee stood in line 45 minutes to buy stamps.
Customer
service and mail delivery seem to improve only after umpteen complaints are
filed. Then, station managers crack the whip and order employees to be more
polite and efficient. After a while, the service slips back below acceptable
levels. There's no consistency.
That's why customers are abandoning the
Postal Service for competitors such as Mail Boxes Etc., UPS and Federal
Express -- and shorter lines. Many have switched from "snail mail" to
speedier faxes, e-mail and the Internet. Bills, statements and payments still
account for about one-third of the post office's $ 60 billion in annual
revenues, but that won't last once Internet billing and payment systems are
perfected and priced competitively.
To prevent a crisis, U.S. Rep. John
McHugh (R-N.Y.), chairman of the House subcommittee on the
Postal Service, has introduced a bill to "modernize and
reform our nation's postal laws for the first
time since 1970." In general, it will maintain mail delivery to all parts of the
country, but establish new rules to ensure fair competition with private
companies.
First introduced four years ago, McHugh's bill is now pending
in the Government Reform Committee, and has many supporters.
So the Postal Service should enjoy its profits and high
ratings while it can, but it must not get complacent. Smart managers know that
long-term profits depend on satisfied, repeat customers. Any private business
that treats its customers as cavalierly as the post office would be long gone.
GRAPHIC: Adequate numbers of well-trained clerks can go
a long way in shortening lines at postal stations.
LOAD-DATE: July 21, 1999 
