If you want to talk about change, swing by the U.S. Post Office on First and River streets. On the second floor in a spotless office sits Arthur “Artie” Tate, the recently installed U.S. Postmaster of Hoboken.
Since June, Tate, a 45-year-old Jersey City native, has overseen an operation that dispenses between 500 and 800 feet of mail per day.
“That means if you stacked up the mail, one letter on top of another, that’s how high it would go,” explained the postmaster in a wide-ranging interview Monday.
It hasn’t always been that way, said Tate, who served as a customer service manager in Jersey City until June, when he was promoted to postmaster in the mile-square city. Over the last 10 years the amount of mail that is coming into Hoboken daily has doubled.
While such an increase proves what we all already know – there are more residential buildings in town and more people than ever – it also seems to highlight the fact that there are more wealthy and younger people in town than ever before.
“We are seeing a lot of the type of advertisements that are more for your high-end stores,” said Tate. “Look, the economy is booming and this is a targeted-area for all major businesses. We welcome it. It’s great for business.” Just like the volume of mail and type of mail is changing as Hoboken’s population changes, so Tate hopes to change the post office. In particular, the postmaster is working on finding a way to make picking up packages easier for commuters who may not be able to take time off work to go to the post office and pick up a package. “Since this is such a big commuting town and the parcel growth has been incredible, I want to make it easier to get your packages,” said Tate. “We are looking into having a post office open a couple of nights a week until 8 or 9 p.m. Or possibly parking a truck outside the PATH station during the holidays.”
Tate, who began working with the postal service 25 years ago as a part-time letter carrier in Cranford, says that other unnamed changes may soon be announced as well. Since taking over the post in June, he has been canvassing the community looking for suggestions about how to improve post office services.
Don’t expect any miracles though.
“Parking is the number one complaint,” said Tate. “That is also the most difficult. We have found that they love our services when they get inside. The tellers are courteous and helpful. It’s just finding a place that is hard.” To counter the problem, postal officials have recently installed vending machines that sell stamps in the train station.
Still door to door
Although Tate is doing his best to make sure the post office changes with the times, he points to the one service that the post office has provided since it delivered its first letter as its most important asset.
“We are the only business today that still goes door to door every single day,” he said. “If you have something that needs to be delivered, the carrier knows if he needs to go around back or drop it in the front. They are the ones who get it there.”
In a place like Hoboken, this “personal touch” – as Tate calls it – can make a big difference in people’s lives, especially those who move around a lot.
“As fast as people are moving out, there are two people moving in,” said Tate. “You can have three different people sharing an apartment and when one moves out they don’t leave a forwarding address. It’s up to the carrier to solve that problem.”
And, according to Tate, they tend to solve those problems an amazing percentage of the time by knocking on doors and asking about a possible forwarding address. Almost every one of the city’s 52 carriers confronts a situation like this every day.
“This is just one of the many unwritten services we offer,” said Tate. “We forward 18,000 letters a week.” When the situation remains unresolved, the mail is just returned to the senders.
In the future, the postmaster said, he was looking forward to becoming an even more integral part of the community.
“I’m just thrilled to be here,” he said.