Last week, some West New York residents received postcards in their mailboxes alerting them that the U.S. Postal Service will be changing delivery hours due to a large decrease in mail volumes. The note also mentioned that the change was due to the economy.
“This is a result of recent adjustments to our delivery routes due to major declines in mail volumes. As the nation’s businesses experience a downturn, it directly affects the volume of mail,” read the note.
“We just want to keep the customers informed that we are going through some changes,” said Thomas Amendola, postmaster of the USPS’s West New York facilities. He added that some customers live by the clock of their mail carrier, and some are very dependent on the mail’s services.
E-mail and the recession are cutting down on the work of the postal service.
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The decline in pieces of mail being delivered by West New York postal employees has been 13 percent in the past fiscal year, according to Amendola. “That translates to about 900,000 mail pieces less,” he said. The facilities handle approximately 6.5 million mail pieces in West New York alone, he said.
The 62 postal employees that are part of West New York postal centers do not have to worry about losing their jobs, he said. Most carriers work approximately six hours delivering mail and two hours in the facility.
In the past few months, the main West New York post office on Bergenline Avenue and 54th Street did cut back in hours, now closing at 5 p.m. as opposed to 7 p.m. Because Amendola became postmaster a month ago, he said he wasn’t aware about any changes in times, but that he doesn’t expect any further changes in the business hours of their four West New York post offices.
“If customers have any concerns about their deliveries, they can contact me. We don’t know what’s wrong unless they call us and we don’t know what’s good unless they call us,” said Amendola. “We want to know both the good and the bad.”
To contact the West New York postmaster, call (201) 865-5796.
Union City
All of the post offices in Union City changed their hours starting Sept. 1.
Union City’s postmaster did not return phone calls by press time last week. However, an unnamed postal employee who answered the phone at a Bergenline Avenue post office said, “Yeah, they’re cutting hours, cutting personnel, the economy is bad.”
Union City has four post offices, located at: 720 Eighth St., 2100 Bergenline Ave., 4535 Bergenline Ave., and the main office at 301 30th St.
Substations now open at 9 a.m. and not 8:15 a.m. as they did before. The main branch now closes at 5 p.m. as opposed to 6 p.m.
The postmaster, Wilfredo Belanger can be reached at: (201) 867-2576.
Why less mail
George Flood, spokesman for the USPS, said that regarding less mail being delivered, “There are really two reasons. The first reason is the economy. The economy is bad for everybody. A lot of businesses are adjusting their operations to match their work load.”
He said, “The second thing is that we’re getting a lot of our mail volume diverted to electronics-like transmissions, like e-mails, like the internet. People are going more toward e-mail than writing letters and cards.”
The postal service is expecting a 12.4 billion decrease in mail piece volume throughout the country.
To combat this, Flood mentioned that the USPS is monitoring the efficiency of their mail carriers and promoting an aggressive marketing campaign targeting both English and Spanish-speakers.
“We’ve won several awards for our advertising for the Hispanic market,” said Flood.
Flood also mentioned that consumers are now able to order stamps, pay for postal fees, and schedule their packages to be picked up by a mail carrier via the internet.
Flood said, “We’re still going to continue to monitor the situation to make sure that some people aren’t getting their mail past 5 p.m. We’re trying to be as efficient as possible and the carrier routes are based on work volume.”
To find out more about the USPS, visit their website at: www.usps.com
Melissa Rappaport may be reached at mrappaport@hudsonreporter.com