Hearing on the postal matters set for Feb. 16
CITYWIDE — Mail delays affecting the Westside since the holidays are believed to be 70 percent resolved, according to a postal spokesman.
A letter carrier shortage, equipment problems and possibly the closure of a Marina del Rey postal plant may have contributed to the late deliveries.
In some cases, the day’s mail hasn’t been arriving on people’s doorsteps until 11 p.m., according to reports.
The U.S. Postal Service, under the congressional spotlight for the problems in Southern California and elsewhere, is scrambling to fix the shortcomings.
In December, Congressman Henry Waxman (D-Santa Monica) sent a letter to John E. Potter, the U.S. postmaster general, inquiring into the mail delays. According to that letter, Waxman’s office had received 26 postal-related cases for all of 2004. By way of comparison, Waxman’s office had 34 postal cases open just two months ago.
In response to the inquiry, Thomas G. Day, vice president of USPS engineering, said efforts were underway to allow dispatches of mail to leave earlier from the Los Angeles processing and distribution center for transport to local post offices for delivery.
Day said that to address customer complaints in Santa Monica, a recent move into a new mail sorting facility should help. That went on line Jan. 21 at 1653 Seventh St., said Larry Dozier, a USPS spokesman.
At full capacity, the new Santa Monica facility is expected to handle more mail than was previously sorted at two smaller locations at 1020 and 1025 Colorado Ave., Dozier said.
The 1020 Colorado Ave. facility is vacant, while the 1025 location, set to be consolidated, will remain operational until the postal service is ready to close it, Dozier said.
Dozier didn’t return calls by press time regarding the daily capacity of any of the Santa Monica facilities.
However, Dozier said local efforts are underway to ensure letter carriers have mail delivered by 5 p.m. To do that, routes are being analyzed so delivery loads are more equally distributed among carriers.
The postal service will also hire new carriers as needed, Dozier said.
In spite of USPS promises to resolve the delivery issues, Congressman Waxman has arranged for a Feb. 16 oversight hearing to be held, during which Potter is expected to explain recent mail snafus.
In preparation for the hearing, Waxman has requested the USPS provide a significant amount of information, including an analysis of the percentage of mail arriving after 5 p.m. within specific ZIP codes; documents showing accurate mail volume, postal policy standards and expectations; and copies of customer complaint logs and daily status reports on delayed first-class mail.
In addition, Waxman has requested information that explains the effect plant consolidations and staffing availability has had on deliveries.
The request may come in light of recent reports by union officials and other postal insiders that a significant portion of the mail delays has to do with staff cutbacks and plant mergers.
Meanwhile, Dozier has denied that chronically late and misdirected mail can be tied to the July closure of the Marina processing and distribution center, south of Marina del Rey. That closing shuffled roughly 850 employees to plants in South Los Angeles, Van Nuys and the Inland Empire, according to reports.
Currently, mail that used to be sorted at the Marina plant is processed in South Los Angeles. That center sifts roughly 6 million pieces of mail at a daily rate of 36,000 letters per hour, up from the nearly 5 million letters sorted daily before the Marina merger.
Jeff Miller, a former steward of the National Letter Carriers Association, Local 1650, said he is not surprised about the delays, although he is glad the USPS is finally sorting them out. He said that when he began in the postal service, he started at 7:30 a.m. and was done delivering mail by 2:30 p.m. He said that as time went on, he continued to start at 7:30 a.m., but was ending work later and later. By the time he retired five years ago, he often left work at 5 p.m.
“By the time I left, mail was coming later and later, so I took it out later and later,” Miller said.
Local 1650 represents 1,000 letter carriers between Malibu and the Palos Verdes Peninsula. Miller retired in 2000 after being a letter carrier for 33 years.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on February 13, 2006. Read the original PDF.