I was sad to read today in the Beacon Journal that the Akron mail processing plant has been officially slated to close-as well as ones in Canton, Youngstown, and Toledo. Although the 600 workers won’t lose their jobs immediately due to union perks, they’ll have to find their specialties in Cleveland, or elsewhere.
What does Akron’s Mail Processing Facility Closing mean to You and Me?
All mail that leaves your mail box or from the post office has to be processed at a mail processing facility. With the local one gone, all mail must now be routed through Cleveland.
- If you send your ALMOST late cable bill to the Akron address, it won’t get there for 3 days- unlike the one day it currently takes.
- Sending belated birthday party invitations won’t make it there just in time
- Greeting cards won’t make it there just in time
- It means you will use email and facebook even more now, and, evite and other sites will become increasingly handy for cities like ours!
What Won’t Change
Mailing outside of the Akron area won’t change all that much. A letter to Chicago will still get there in 2-3 days. A package to Pa-Ho-Nix Arizona will get there in 3 days. But, with the consolidation of many many processing plants across the country, efficiencies at the remaining centers will likely go down for a while and they might start seeing backlogs. Of course, with mail volumes dropping, this might not be that big of a deal.
Why Closing again? Can’t they increase stamp prices?
The US Postal Service can only raise the price of stamps with inflation- it is the law. The US Postal Service is slated to lose $3.3Billion or so this year. So they have to cut costs- hence the closing of offices and processing centers- and possibly, in the future, the elimination of Saturday delivery.
Plug for one of my favorite post office movie:
How does this change in our time honored service affect you? Comment below.
