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USPS Proposes Consolidation of Panama City Processing and Distribution Center
12/30/09 - 05:24 PM
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Erin Hawley - bio
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click for larger image Bay County, Fla:

A Bay County post office processing and distribution center is facing possible closure, and U.S. Postal Service officials say it’s in part due to the growing popularity of the internet.

The proposed consolidation is to save money. Money that officials say has been lost from the economy and the internet.

The USPS is a business. It makes its money from services and stamp sales, and with e-mail growing in popularity, many letters are being send electronically instead of the old fashioned way.

In fact, USPS officials say since 2006, they’ve received about 36,000,000 fewer pieces of mail.

Technology is putting post office jobs across the country at stake.

“If you can centralize some operations, you can save some money and you can keep yourself going,” says Joseph Breckenridge, with USPS says nationally the postal service’s income is declining.

To save money, the agency is looking to consolidate Panama City’s sorting operations from the Sherman Avenue location to Pensacola.

If the changes go through, all mail will be sent to Pensacola to be sorted, but the Sherman Avenue office will remain open for regular mail services.

Cutting the operations center would mean saving about $500,000 a year but it would also mean lost jobs.

Breckenridge says the change wouldn’t affect customers but it will affect about 10-percent of the 92 jobs in that division.

“On one standpoint, consolidation is good,” says David Williams as he leaves the Sherman Ave. branch. “I mean it brings everything to a centralized location but you have the loss of jobs which is really not the best thing for our economy.”

Bay County residents have mixed opinions but seem open to the idea as long as it doesn’t affect the quality or quickness of the service.

“If it’s going to slow down the mail process here then I’d like to see them not do it,” says James Dean, a post office user, “But if it doesn’t affect the mail process then lets save some money, that’s fine.”

“Well when… certain things bounce from one location to the other the risk of losing and mispackaging and mishandling does increase,” says Williams.

The USPS will hold a public meeting to discuss the proposal on January 14th at 7:00 p.m. at Legion Hall at the Bay County Fairgrounds.

Breckenridge says a date for the final decision has not been set but expect it to be announced sometime in February.

The agency is also still considering the closure of the Parker branch.

User Comments

If you mail a letter or large envelope locally, the stamp is cancelled,and sorted on automated machinery in the evening by these workers,then bagged and transported by truck to Tallahassee or Pensacola to be flown to the state or area in the world it is going, from 10:00pm till after midnight
Under this cut-back, all letters or large envelopes would just be bagged up and trucked in the evening to Pensacola or Tallahassee and cancelled there,sorted by the machines there and sent on their way, from 10:00 pm till after midnight.
It cuts out the cancelling and sorting of letters,here, in the evening.
It’s a consolodation of sorting operations in the evening from here and giving the work to Pensacola.

Posted by retired one  on  12/31  at  12:39 PM

For those of us who don’t know what “A Bay County post office processing and distribution center” actually is, it would be nice to point a a particular building. This seems like a term that every PO employee may recognize but not the general public…

Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)  on  12/31  at  11:40 AM
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