Routes reorganized in Hollister
Some residents may have noticed their mail arriving later than
normal this week
– and it’s not to do with holiday delays. On Jan. 5, 21
Bay-Valley District cities, including Hollister, had their U.S.
postal service routes adjusted.
Routes reorganized in Hollister
Some residents may have noticed their mail arriving later than normal this week – and it’s not to do with holiday delays. On Jan. 5, 21 Bay-Valley District cities, including Hollister, had their U.S. postal service routes adjusted.
Post office officials credited the change in routes to a decrease in the volume of mail they are handling – due to the economic downturn – as well as advancements in automated sorting technology.
“We are moving quickly to adjust carrier routes to respond to the current state of the economy,” said Kim Fernandez, the Bay-Valley District Manager, in a press release. “Our goal is to keep mail affordable and to provide excellent service to our customers. That means we must preserve the ability to provide quality service at reasonable rates now and well into the future.”
Augustine Ruiz, a spokesman for the Bay Valley District, said staff is not being laid off, but because carriers can be out in the field earlier in the day it made sense to adjust routes.
“They spend less time in the office and more time out of the office,” Ruiz said. “We have to realign the routes so they are all eight hours. Some routes may add some [addresses] and some may decrease.”
Routes will be adjusted in more cities through Feb. 20. Nationwide the changes will affect as many as 50 million addresses on 85,000 routes.
“It will be very seamless to most customers,” Ruiz said. “But some customers may be used to getting their mail at 10 a.m.,” and if they are added to the end of another route their mail will come later in the day.
Ruiz said that the sorting technology used in the post office sorts 90 percent of the mail, so carriers have far less hand sorting to do in the office.
“It really reduces the amount of time they have to spend in the office getting ready for the mail,” he said.
