The Consumer Advocate’s Questions, the APWU’s Objections
The PRC’s Office of the Consumer Advocate filed a number of interrogatories in the PRC’s plant consolidation docket today. Each document raises a series of questions about the potential impact of the proposed changes on customer service. Postal people tend to think of service standards in terms of first class mail, and whether it’s overnight, two day or three day. The OCA questions go further, delving into questions such as:
- “Will any BMEUs be closed as a result of the 10 AMP consolidations [already in progress or completed]? For any BMEUs that will be closed as a result of the 10 consolidations, please confirm that mailers located near the closing facility may have to transport their mail over greater distances to the gaining facility.”
- “…were the service standards for Periodicals Mail reviewed to determine if service between any ZIP Code pairs would be degraded?”
- “For each of the ten network transfers that have been or will be implemented, please identify the impact on: (1) collection box pick-ups, (2) latest mail dispatch times at the local retail facilities, (3) alterations in household mail delivery times, and (4) the actual change in service standards.”
Questions relating to collection times, changes to BMEU or drop shipment arrangements have appeared in many of the news stories related to individual consolidations around the country, and would seem far more relevant to the average customer than the ‘don’t take our postmark away’ complaints.
The OCA also asked for more specifics on the calculations of savings, and on the balance between service and efficiency as a rationale for network redesign.
The USPS has fourteen days to file its responses.
APWU objects to expedited schedule
Filed on Friday was an objection by the APWU to the USPS request for an expedited schedule for the PRC’s consideration of the case, one which would wrap up prior to the USPS’s target date of May 15 for implementing the changes. The APWU is pushing for a much longer time frame: “…the presumptive timetable for this proceeding should span approximately one year.”
The APWU argues that all consolidations completed since 2001 are relevant, since they are related to the original NIA (Network Integration and Alignment strategy that morphed (evolved?) into END (Evolutionary Network Development).
The Postal Service contends that the issue is the narrower one of service changes related to a national rollout of END, not END itself, nor the individual plant consolidation decisions.
