How the Mail Went Through
September 11.
Postmaster General John Potter goes on the Internet to Postal Service
employees. No reports of injuries, he says. But Church Street Station in Twin
Towers area is showered with glass and debris. Postal employees become rescue
workers. New York post office provides trucks and drivers to shuttle medical
supplies. Nationally, mail handlers and clerks report on the PM tours to
prepare mail for next-day distribution.
September 12. Postal
operations continue everywhere except the evacuated area. The FAA suspends
commercial air operations. Ground transportation network would carry the load.
Potter advises: Continue to send mail to New York City. Local representatives
and the Internet would tell how. Nationally, collection, processing and
delivery continue. Potter says: “The best thing we can do for America
right now is to keep the mail moving.”
September 13. USPS
starts to use cargo flights instead of suspended commercial air.
September 17.
Location for residential and small-business pickup designated. Location for
business mailers open 24/7.
September 20.
Postmaster General Potter appears before the Subcommittee on International
Security, Proliferation and Federal Services of the Senate Subcommittee on
Governmental Affairs. Comments on the Postal Service’s pact with FedEx to
transport Express, Priority and some first-class mail. In the crisis,
“FedEx was one of the first airlines able to fly a full schedule.”
The Postal Service has a duty to protect the mail as well as
handle it. Potter mentions the manager of the Wall Street Station. The lock on
the station’s gate had been broken. To protect the mail, the manager
stood watch through the hellish night in the cab of a postal truck.
Potter addresses the problems of finances and
reorganization: “Both Congress and the comptroller of the United States
have asked us to develop a comprehensive Transformation Plan to serve as a
long-term blueprint for this organization’s future.” Maybe, maybe
the Transformation Plan will allow the Postal Service to privatize without
being auctioned off.
Potter reminds the attendees: “Over the years
we’ve learned that in times of natural disaster, the appearance of letter
carriers making their rounds is an important signal to neighborhoods and the
nation that the fabric of everyday life, although damaged, remains
intact.”
I wasn’t surprised by the Postal Service’s
can-do attitude. USPS tends to do its best under pressure. Like when United
Parcel System workers went on strike in 1976. More than a million additional
parcels were handled in the Postal Service’s Central Region during strike
time. More recently, in 1997, UPS went out on a 13-day national strike that
forced the Postal Service to handle 70 percent more Express Mail, 50 percent
more Priority Mail and 20 percent more parcel post. USPS coped by:
• Opening
a command center that’s ordinarily used at Christmas;
•
Scheduling Sunday deliveries to avoid a backlog;
• Hiring
temporary employees in cities that needed them;
• Opening
20 facilities with temporary workers.
Whatever the Postal Service does well during strikes or
disasters doesn’t mean a thing to writers in the newspapers. Take the New
York Times, October 2, as an example. In a
column opposing the use of federal workers to run security operations at
airports, John Tierney argued, “The idea of a corps of long-term,
well-paid federal workers screening luggage may sound reassuring at press
conferences. But think of another group of federal employees with secure jobs,
higher pay than comparable workers in the private sector, and ample experience
handling packages. Think of the United States Postal Service.”
A cheap shot at the Postal Service in the newspaper —
sure sign that the country is headed back to normalcy.
I prefer to think of the manager at the Wall Street Station.
Bernie Knill
contributing editor
bernknill@aol.com
