Greenburgh Supervisor Tours Mail Processing Facility, Gives Update on Complaints

GREENBURGH, NY - Town of Greenburgh Supervisor Paul Feiner sent out an update on his efforts following up with complaints about postal service.

He said he spoke a few months ago with the chief operating officer of the United States Postal Service about the problems and was promised that attention was being given to them.

In a recent email, Feiner said he was invited by Richard Conte, the district manager/executive in charge of the USPS, to tour the district processing plant.

“The good news: they are taking every complaint seriously and trying to identify the causes of the problems,” Feiner wrote. “Most of the complaints forwarded to them involve temporary or substitute postal service employees who fill in when a postal service employee is on vacation or leaves his/her job.”

From Feiner’s email:

The highlight of the day was the tour of the district process plant. I learned that 2.4 million letters are sorted daily at the plant with 600,000 magazines processed.

The plant is automated. A train moves around the building transporting mail to different automated sections of the distributions center. Another machine is also located at the facility­ testing letters to make sure that hazardous materials like anthrax isn't being sent to customers.

A problem: dog bites. Every year a number of postal service employees get bitten by dogs--some seriously. Please be considerate if you have a dog.

A GPS system tracks the location of both letters and the location of each postal service worker. It was interesting observing how the postal service is able to track mail.

Although there are still problems at the postal service - I feel optimistic that many of the problems will decrease. Because of automation and the GPS systems - the postal service has the tools to understand the causes of the problems forwarded to their attention and to correct the problems. Feel free to continue to advise me of concerns you have. Last week I received some compliments about the postal service from residents too! They should also be forwarded. When the postal service does something great – it should be acknowledged. Many of the postal service employees really care about their job.