More on the plant consolidation process
The following is excerpted from the minutes of the Mailers’ Technical Advisory Committee meeting that took place last month in Washington. In this excerpt, USPS VP for Network Operations Management Paul Vogel discusses the plant consolidation process:
Mr. Vogel announced that the national notification of the new network system is well under way, starting with regular briefings of the Board of Governors, the Congress and local legislators and other interested groups. He discussed some of the ramifications of the new network. First, there will be fewer local and destinating processing centers required. The Area Mail Processing guidelines will continue to be used, a long and rational process that guides consolidation of operations to locations best suited to process specific types of mail. The consolidation is based on mail shape and will result in fewer and more efficient and effective facilities.
Another part of the new network will involve ramping up the regional distribution centers. That transition is rapid for some centers, large facilities that have already installed the heavy duty equipment, like the APPS. For some older facilities, some of which had equipment and internal structures installed thirty years ago, there will be complete renovations, new physical structure and new equipment – a process that is less costly than staring anew with a new facility.
Originating mail, which is collected, cancelled and processed at most Postal Offices and other facilities, is declining whereas destinating mail, the kind prepared by MTAC members, is increasing. Therefore, facilities which primarily handle originating mail are subject to partial or full consolidation. The process by which a facility undergoes full (closing) or partial (transfer of certain functions to another facility), is Area Mail Processing (AMP), which is mainly an information gathering and dissemination process. It is time-tested and effective, beginning with a period of time for feasibility studies, a shorter time for review of the reports and proposals generated by Headquarters, the Board of Governors and the Postal Rate Commission and other affected groups, and a final period during which the actual transition takes place. The process can take up to a year. Mr. Vogel stated that ten facilities had completed or nearly completed the process. An additional forty are now in line for transition.
Mr. Vogel described another program which will impact Regional Distribution Center Activations which will enhance the surface transportation network. The new Area Distribution Centers (ADCs) will mainly be in the middle of the country and will allow the Postal Service to move a lot more mail out of the air and onto ground transport, which is less costly and more reliable.
Finally, Mr. Vogel discussed the BMC modernization, which is driven by the fact that most of the current facilities were built and equipped thirty years ago. Although it is a major project to convert and equip the old buildings, it is far more rational than building all new facilities. Admittedly there will be some operational and personal dislocations, and there will be some changes in the way mailers submit mail to some facilities.
This network move will unfortunately further erode “service” for First Class Mail. The USPS ” Service Standards” for First Class Mail has been compressed to a point where “overnight service” is now “two day service” and “two day service ” is now “three day service”. What was “three day service” as one postal clerk put it is “three to ten day delivery”.