Most MPA members who responded to an email survey about the Postal Service prefer that the association "advocate for USPS commitment to timely and accurate delivery of newspapers."
That was the top priority for 25 of the 39 responses to the early-February survey (see the chart on next page).
Missouri Press surveyed its members in response to USPS proposals to close many local post offices and sectional centers and to end Saturday delivery of mail.
A number of people who responded included "additional thoughts" along with their priority rankings. Here are those thoughts.
Additional thoughts:
The third question begs its own answer. The processing centers have been a thorn in our side since their inception. This type of operation makes no business sense what-so-ever. If in a different business, it might work but not as a postal operation. These centers are where we found out years ago that our newspaper bags were being delayed. We proved that years ago.
Using (our town) as an example: ALL mail is taken in at our post office and shipped by truck to the Kansas City area where it is sorted and sent back to our post office before morning.
Prior to that the mail was cancelled here and sorted. Much as the mail was local and was put into the post office boxes or mail route boxes inside the post office for the carrier to take out the next door. Mail going to … towns in the county went directly there. All other mail then was sent to the appropriate towns through a routing system.
That still makes sense and would save the Post Office fuel. Let’s say that half the weight and bulk of the mail that is now being sent out … wasn’t. … It was my understanding that the only reason for having the local mail trucked to the Centers was to make their sorting equipment feasible economically.
Do away with all the Procession Centers or cut back such as the Post Office is trying to do (maybe). We should let them alone if that is what they are trying to do.
NO. 1. If we should have to give up a day of delivery, it should be Monday because of the great number of holidays which are now legally observed on Monday and the mail doesn’t flow anyway (mostly).
NO. 2 We are not going to win on this one. Status Quo is fine. They are losing this one to the Web so for us it is a moot point.
NO. 4. Small postoffice (free standing) don’t make sense. Go back to having the post office in a supermarket, or other business, even WalMart.
NO. 5. Again, this as a business decision doesn’t make sense as it is not economically feasible. This type of delivery costs them money (while it competes with us).
These explanantion which I have given should be in more complete form. Abbreviated explanations many times do more harm than good but maybe I’ve made my points.
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Need to work the mail in the Mail Distribution Centers, as that is where the delay in delivery is coming from. As an example, we had a tracer put on our papers going to Columbia, because it was taking a week for our papers to be delivered in Columbia.
We now put the papers in the mail on Wednesdays, but back then we put them in the mail on Thursdays. The mail left (here) at 5 p.m. on Thursday, arrived in Quincy at 9 p.m. Thursday, arrived in Columbia at the mail distribution center at 1 a.m. on Friday and wasn’t delivered until the next Wednesday when it was received at the Columbia Post Office.
The St. Louis Mail Distribution Center said it took a day for mail to go from the first floor to the second floor, and other MDC’s had similar comments on reason for the delays.
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Advocate to the USPS to stop its "Every Door Direct Mail" initiative that threatens newspaper inserts and other advertising. This is a biggie for me. I have lost a ton of business…
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They need to work on getting fuel-efficient vehicles.
1. Timely and accurate delivery of newspapers.
2. Continued operation of small post offices in rural areas.
3-4-5 are of little interest to me.
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I applaud and appreciate your efforts but think the USPS is going to do whatever they want (after the November election) regardless of any lobbying from the MPA or anyone else.
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The post office is broken. As a taxpayer, I am tired of subsidizing the post office’s gross inefficiencies. We in the newspaper industry have to adapt or die.
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If the Postal system were not held hostage to making those exorbitant advance payments into their pension plan, and unions got out of the way, none of the above would even be a problem.
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The Postal Service is just like any other business, they need to make cuts. I can compete on my own if I can get good service from the post office and if they don’t compete against their own customers in terms of mailing at cheaper rates.
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Not sure if they care, but their recent moves have pushed this newspaper into looking into digital alternatives for delivery, since it appears that we will no longer be able to rely on the USPS for timely delivery of our product.
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My suggestion is for advocation of timely and accurate delivery of newspapers. We, like many, make the extra effort and do direct drops at area post offices to ensure next-day service of that newspaper. As very small post offices close in our area, (the local) post office has absorbed those delivery routes. At times, even with a DDU, delivery is late.
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Hard to rank because all are of great importance.
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For the USPS to commit to timely and accurate delivery of newspapers, the first and third items would fall into place as items of importance. That is why I ranked them lower. For me, in rural Missouri, the small post offices are important to the continuation of the community itself.
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