READER LETTER: "Experiment" shows closing CoMo postal hub will cause lengthy mail delays

Mail processed at the Columbia hub arrives on time; mail processed in St. Louis is late

COLUMBIA, 5/5/13 (Editorial Letter) -- U.S Post Office managers who want to close the Columbia post office hub located behind Columbia Regional Airport feel they are their own business entity entitled to do what they wish with their company.

 

They say Congress will try to stop them unless they are creative and sneaky.

 

First, they plan to lay off 42 Hub workers. Then, they will slowly lay off more and more people until only a skeleton crew remains. At that point, the hub will be no more than a bulk drop off and pick up point for mail, leading to the "inevitable" conclusion we ought to just send all the mail to St. Louis to be processed and shipped out.

 

If this happens, everyone in Columbia who mails bills and letters will not get them delivered for a week to 10 days, instead of the 1-2 days delivery presently takes.

 

Here's proof.

 

In 2005, the higher ups decided to send Saturday's mail -- picked up in Columbia -- to St. Louis, which was already complaining they could barely handle the load they had.

 

Hearing about the complaint, the local post master did an experiment. About 100 letters were mailed from Columbia on a Saturday, bound for St. Louis.

 

Delivery times were compared to letters mailed Friday from Columbia, but processed at the Columbia Hub.

 

By the following Monday, all the letters mailed Friday had reached their destinations. But only 85% of the experimental mail sent on Saturday arrived at its destination.

 

The other 15% came the following week.

 

So, if the higher ups get away with being sneaky, and eventually closing this efficient and important Columbia hub, any letters or bill payments will not arrive for a week to 10 days -- or longer.

Signed, Can't Say Who I Am @ the Columbia Post Office