Update, below.
Today is the day when all my feelings about the Post Office sink to the lowest possible level. Indeed, the last time it was this low was 364 days ago, which was the last time I went to mail Christmas packages from the post office. The thing is, there’s this basic problem and the basic problem is not particularly complex but the post office seens absolutely committed to ignoring it. It isn’t the local post office people who refuse to do anything, though. At least my guess is that the decision not to address the problem emanates from somewhere farther south of us in the postal bureaucracy located in ROTUS.
The problem is this. We have a tiny post office here in Point Roberts, staffed by maybe four people at the counter. They have other people doing other things, but the people who take things from you and deliver things unto you at the post office are about four in number. And then take into account that there are about 2,300 private mail boxes at the post office. In fact, there are almost twice as many post office mail boxes as there are permanent residents here. So there are a very large number of people who are getting and sending packages at Christmas time.
We also have a lot of bulk mailers who, I am told, come down from Canada to mail their dozens of packages at a time from Point Roberts because it’s cheaper, if they’re mailing to the U.S., to mail from the U.S. Understandable; I got it. It’s okay with me.
But during the first half of December, in particular, the bulk mailing and the local package mailing and local package receiving all get too much for the little post office. And so we have the problem of one’s arriving at the post office to mail a Christmas package or to pick up a Christmas package, at which point one finds 15 to 20 people in line. This line is essentially unmoving because at the front of the line (which has only two counter positions) are two bulk mailers with their dozens and dozens and dozens of packages. They have special carts to carry them, those packages are so many in their numbers.
Today, I was in line for 45 minutes to mail my package. The bulk mailers occupying the two wickets took about 20 minutes each. At the peak, there were 22 people in line, about half of whom were there only to pick up a package. Now, in case the P.O. people have never thought about this, here’s a couple of suggestions:
1. How about having one line for the bulk mailers, defined as anyone with more than 10 packages to mail, and the second line for everyone else?
2. How about (if there is staff available, or how about making staff available for those 2 weeks) opening the parcel window door for a third line where people who are just picking up packages can do so (as they do for 90 minutes on Saturday all year when that’s the only service available at the post office)?
3. How about having special mailing times just for bulk mailers and other special mailing times just for non-bulk mailers?
The Post Office seems pretty committed to the principle “First Come First Served.” But given that we dispensed with habeas corpus over the past decade, couldn’t we dispense with the FCFS principle too? Or at least consider whether fairness and equity could be achieved in other ways? I love the post office and its staff here and I hate that they make me so mad at them!
Update: I am told by a local resident that there is an informal policy that bulk mailers are not to show up between 8 and 9:30, nor between 2 and 2:30. Not advertised, of course. It helps to be connected, even here, to actually get the whole picture!
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2 comments:
okay I can't resist leaving a comment on this topic..
The postal service is PR sounds a breeze compared to what we have DIO ( down in Oz).
Here they now sell not only postal items but also act an agent for every known utility -water, power, banks, councils - you name it.
So when I have a simple requirement to purchase a stamp for my ATC, I frequently have to queue behind a long line of people who don't even want to use a post office - some of them paying bills for a bank that is just across the road
Anyway I will take this opportunity to say thanks for the northern lights ATC
Liz
Hi Judy,I always enjoy your comments.
On the subject of the Post Office I agree with you generally. We were actually in the same Saturday line-up recently and that sort of gets to my Point.
Our little Post Office is, in a strange way, the victim of its own success.
This is would not be apparent if we still lived elsewhere in the Rotus.
Like the previous comment from Oz, I would observe that it might seem like bad service but you ought to try the system one mile to the north, which by any measure, is much worse.
I was speaking with a friend in Alberta (ex contractor/employee of Canada Post) and he made the comment that when you combine a government operation with a big union you are bound to dislike to the result.
As you point out, the bulk mailers come to the Point because it is cheaper. A recent experience with someone in Quebec convinced me that the Canadian rate is about twice our own for a similar item and it is even more expensive within Canada.
Of course some of these volume problems are not USPS's fault but those of the border. The non-tariff barrier at the 49th parallel never ceases to amaze me with its power to prevent sensible economic decisions. Lots of retailers in the US simply refuse to deal with Canadian customers rather than face the attendant hassles. Customers then clog our little Post office seeking relief. I regularly see line-ups outside the Parcel service depot here on the Point. I assume those folks aren't standing in the rain because they like it.
Some of your sensible suggestions for improvements are made are made difficult to implement by the fact that the USPS is so good, at least in relative terms.
Long term I think I hope we are able one day rename the place Point WOB (with out border) and you can then stop worrying about how your husbands newly laundered socks are going to affect your Nexus card. Come to think of it, if that were to happen, you won't need a Nexus card to cross our "Maginot Line".
The "economic consequences of the border" is a favorite hobby horse of mine but will save that for another day. As this global economic nightmare unfolds I am hopeful that the crisis will lead us to examine ideas heretofore deemed heretical.
Barack Obama said"We have been told we cannot do this by a chorus of cynics. They will only grow louder and more dissonant in the weeks to come. We've been asked to pause for a reality check; we've been warned against offering the people of this nation false hope. But in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope".
Barack Obama (1961 - ), New Hampshire Democratic Primary Speech, 01-08-08
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