Tag: USA

Over the past year or so, the U.S. Postal Service has been rolling out these machines, called Automated Postal Centers (APCs), at select post offices across the state.

With step-by-step instructions available in English and Spanish, the machines also are accessible on days and at hours that the tellers are not; and at some locations, available 24 hours a day.
The APC does everything short of face-to-face transactions. While tellers still handle money orders, bulk drop-offs and other tasks, the machines, which take credit and debit cards, dispense stamps, weigh packages and calculate postage for Express Mail, Priority Mail, First-Class Mail and Parcel Post items. Of the 21 machines in North Jersey, the machine at the Westfield Post Office is getting the greatest use, averaging USD1,400 in business a day, while Elizabeth is second, at USD1,200. Trailing closely behind are South Plainfield and Jersey City, said Elizabeth Postmaster Carmen Fede.

The machine has received mixed reviews from the postal workers union, where members have expressed concern that it will be used to cut staff. The primary purpose of the machines is customer convenience. The machines are extremely reliable and help reduce the lines at the post office, he said.

The U.S. Postal Service has been forced to change how it serves customers because Americans are relying on the Internet to stay in touch and pay their bills.

From 2003 to 2005, the volume of first-class mail handled by the postal service decreased about 5 1 / 2 percent. First-class mail includes most cards, postcards, letters and large envelopes.

Also declining has been the number of blue collection mailboxes on street corners and in shopping center parking lots.

Oklahoma has about 3,000 blue boxes, said Larry Flener, U.S. Postal Service consumer affairs manager in Oklahoma City. Thirty percent of those boxes are in Oklahoma City and Tulsa.

Nationwide, the postal service has reduced 42,000 blue boxes to scrap metal since 1999. About 295,000 boxes remained standing at the end of 2005.

Like the phone booth before it, the blue street-corner mailbox is rapidly becoming a casualty of the digital age.

As more people send e-mails and pay bills online, the decline in first-class mail is forcing the U.S. Postal Service to remove tens of thousands of underused mailboxes from city streets. Since 1999, the Postal Service has removed more than 42,000 collection boxes. As of last year, about 295,000 mailboxes remained in use.

Along with mailboxes, the Postal Service is facing a drop in jobs. In the past five years it has reduced staff through attrition by more than 80,000 employees. The current postal workforce stands at about 700,000.

The Postal Service’s 2007 budget accounts for an expected reduction of about 3 billion pieces of first-class mail from 2006 levels. Last year, about 98 billion pieces of first-class mail were delivered.