To the Editor,

This is in response to the Letter to the Editor that appeared on July 22, from resident Fred Marchi, regarding the recent decision to reduce retail hours at the Mount Airy Post Office and problems with his mail service.

The Postal Service is experiencing significant financial challenges. Mail volume is declining and we are losing revenue. We do not operate with tax dollars and must run our business with the revenue from sales and services. While internet use has brought down mail volume, it has also been impacted by the fact that the recession has been particularly hard on the financial, credit, insurance and housing industries, which had all been extremely heavy senders of mail. Last year mail volume declined more than 9.5 billion pieces. We have not experienced a decline of this magnitude in our history and the trend is continuing today. It appears mail volume decline for this year may exceed 20 billion pieces.

We are exploring strategies that will help us operate more efficiently. We have frozen executive salaries, stopped construction of new Post Offices, consolidated mail processing facilities, adjusted delivery routes and continue to review and evaluate our operations. The decision to change our hours was done after careful review of customer usage. We found that there were times when very few customers used the Post Office.

While our hours have been shortened, access to the Postal Services and products has not. We are available online 24 hours, 7 days per week at www.usps.com. Customers can weigh packages at home and use credit or debit cards to pay for postage, print the postage and place it on their packages. Stamps are available online, at grocery stores and by mail at no additional cost. The White Plains Contract Postal Unit, located at 961 Old Highway 601 remains open until 5 pm daily and until noon on Saturdays.

Reducing hours in our retail operation creates opportunities to shift employees into other areas where work is needed, without having to use additional overtime hours. We are simply matching the workload to the work, which has been continuously challenging due to our ever-decreasing mail volume. We have not hired new employees to replace retiring employees, enabling those employees with fewer work hours available in one operation to shift to other operations. No employee is receiving same pay for less work, and certainly no one is receiving bonuses of any kind.

I have spoken with Mr. Marchi regarding his concerns about his mail service. We are working to resolve his issues. And, I would like to ask customers with problems to please contact me at the office so we can address them immediately. All customers deserve excellent service and I am available to make certain we are providing the best service possible.

Thank you for the opportunity to share this information.

Sincerely,

Joy Barlow, postmaster

Mount Airy