As www.prc.gov website fails to deliver, post office closings provide political fodder

August 4, 10:07 AMWichita Independent ExaminerGeoff Caldwell

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(AP Photo/Florida Keys News Bureau, Rob O'Neal)

No one knows as of this writing how many of us are trying to access the www.prc.gov  (postal regulatory commission) website to see if "our" post office is one of those on a proposed hit list, but I do know that it's at least one too many.

Over the past hour, multiple attempts to access the site utilizing two different internet browsers have all resulted in the same "waiting for www.prc.gov..." message at the bottom of the screen.

Frankly it's not much different than the agonizingly long waits I must endure every time I visit my own local postal interface exchange to mail a package or pick up some stamps.  No matter the time of day, no matter the day of week, the story the same:  long lines due to never having enough employees to serve the demand and then those that are there slowing the line even further with a barrage of "upsells" to every customer at the counter.

But I digress.  At issue is a listing of hundreds of post office across the country that are on a suggested closing list recently submitted to the Postal Regulatory Commission.  It is common knowledge that the Postal Service has been  bleeding billions as e-mail has reduced the number of pieces actually entering the "snail mail" system and the recession has reduced the number of junk mail pieces clogging up mail receptacles the nation over.

It is also common knowledge that any time you begin tinkering with long standing institutions, politics will enter the debate faster then a long tailed cat running from a room full of rocking chairs.  Wanda Freeman of the TimesRecordOnline in Fort Smith, Arkansas is already quoting Fort Smith Mayor Ray Baker as being unhappy with three of Fort Smith's offices on the hit list and asking: "What are they going to do with the employees at those locations?"

Mayor Baker is only but the first in a chorus of politicians across the country warming up to plea for saving their own stations while at the same time agreeing that the Postal Service needs change to survive.  (Just don't "change" in my town.)  Oh yes, the cacophony is only beginning.

Just as in the military base closings of the past, the postal closings will bring pain to some, inconvenience for others, and "change" for all, but they will not bring the end of the world.

Facing billions in losses this year alone, (even AFTER raising rates again) nothing short of major systemic change will save the system.  (Unless of course your idea of "saving the system" is to bring it back under Congressional control and spend billions more of your tax dollars to prop it up as is.) 

The closings are but only one part.  For whatever reason, top management has clung to Saturday mail delivery  as if it were listed in the Bill of Rights.  I do believe that having to sort through all the "You are already a winner" pieces only five days a week instead of six will not be that disruptive to the American pulse.

And may I suggest that they contract with a customer service guru to streamline the operations they do have left.  Why in the world should someone just needing a roll of stamps have to wait behind the "I've got three things I need to mail but have no idea how I want to do it and need boxes, and tape, and oh yeh, can you look up the address for me while your at it, idiot?"

I personally use and like the flat rate shipping the USPS offers, but the total lack of efficiency and service at my local station sends me down the street to the UPS store far too often. 

As for Mayor Baker's concern about all those employees:  No, all the jobs can't be saved, but might transferring a few to beef up customer service at the remaining locations be something to consider? 

In the real world, efficiency and customer service drive profits, maybe 234 years after the establishment of the first Post Office  the heads of the current system could at least feign an attempt to comprehend that.

P.S.
It's been two hours now and I still cannot connect to the www.prc.gov website.  If anyone actually gets through how about dropping a comment here for the rest of us.  Or if you prefer, can always email your experience to me at gc@caldwellscorner.com.
As always, have a great one and I'll see ya round the Corner tomorrow.
Geoff

UPDATE (as of 1300 8/4/2009)

Thanks to the many of you who have emailed me with your stories, and alternate links. (So please feel free to keep comments coming but link emails no longer needed.  A big thanks to all who already have though.)

Allan Von Werder, publisher of the Banner-Tribune in Franklin Lousiana  and Emery of John Michael Personnel  were the first to forward this google docs link:
Google docs link to post office closings
And a reader in Vermont forwarded the following .pdf link in case you can't access the prc.gov front page:
prc.gov .pdf file link
There are two offices in Wichita on the list, they are the Chisolm Station at 2510 S. Elizabeth and the North Station at 2325 N. Arkansas.