Chicago Postal Service to Be Upgraded

According to the Chicago Tribune on April 11, U.S. Postmaster John E. Potter spoke in Chicago on April 10 to address issues of poor performance by the Postal Service in Chicago. Calling Chicago's Postal Service the nation's worst for mail delivery Potter said that he is making Chicago a priority. The Postal Service will be adding 200 new carriers to the Chicago area in and that results would be visible within six months as they provide more training and more staff to revamp Chicago's mail delivery system.

In addition to the new letter carriers, the Chicago Post Office will hire 25 new technicians to maintain mail-sorting equipment and bring in teams of experts from around the nation to improve procedures.

According to Potter, the bulk of Chicago's problems stem from the failed policies of former Chicago Postmaster Kelvin Mack, who was replaced last fall by Gloria E. Tyson. Though Mack is still with the Postal Service, he is no longer in Chicago.

Postal officials said that 91 percent of letters mailed to other addresses within the city are delivered within a day, which seems reasonable but compared with the national average of 95 percent Chicago's service clearly needs some work. The Postal Service wants to see Chicago's on-time delivery rate equal or exceed the 95 percent rate in other comparable cities like New York and Los Angeles. Currently, Chicago's 91 percent rate is lower than all other major cities in the U.S.

While mail services in Chicago are the worst in the country, mail service in the immediate and surrounding suburbs of Chicago is on par with the national average.

The 200 new letter carriers come with a cost of more than $11 million a year and will join 3,000 letter carriers who now cover the city's 2,500 delivery routes. Taxpayers will not be footing that $11 million bill, no taxpayer money supports the Postal Service.

In addition to the new letter carriers the Postal Service will focus on bringing in new technology, using better assessment and tracking systems, and providing more training to their employees in an effort to improve efficiency and service. In the technologically advanced age we live in where people routinely perform tasks online that they used to use the Postal Service for such as bill paying and sending letters the Postal Service needs to radically improve their efficiency in order to stay competitive. They also face competition from private carriers like Fed Ex or UPS, who charge more for their services but generally guaranty faster and more accurate delivery.

While Chicago's efforts are a good start, noticeable improvement is still months off while the new carriers are hired and new procedures implemented. The people of Chicago will see little immediate change in the accuracy and speed of mail delivery within the city.