Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, June 15, 1993 TAG: 9306150166
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SANDRA BROWN KELLY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Within a year, the trays will replace traditional mailbags for all carriers just as machines are supposed to eliminate the time that carriers spend sorting mail before heading out on their routes.
The point of "DPS" is to get the mail to your house at the same time each day, said Don Kelly, a manager at the Roanoke post office.
The letter-size mail in the trays is sorted into the sequence in which a route is delivered.
Carriers still need bags for magazines and other items too bulky for the tray system, so they'll be working out of both trays and bags until they figure out a better way.
Along with delivering the mail, the carriers will be looking for ways to integrate the various types of mail, said Kelly.
"Once they get out on the street with it, we'll see what kind of ideas they can come up with," he said.
The carriers serving the 24013 area are testing the system, but it's coming, said Kelly.
The decision has been made to change to the machine-sorting system, which requires that each piece of mail be bar-coded for machine reading.
Some of the mail that comes to the Roanoke post office already has been coded.
If it hasn't, a bar code is put on the envelope or wrapper.
Delivery point sequencing was first tested and then put into use in Louisville, Ky., and Nassau County, N.Y., Kelly said.
Processors in Roanoke have been practicing the sorting since April 5, Kelly said.
He said it will take about a year to get the new sorting process operational throughout the valley.
Kelly said among the things the Postal Service must determine is how long it takes to deliver some routes, which are designed to be completed in eight hours.
But the addition of housing to an area or the loss of residents can change that.
The new system is being carefully monitored by the American Postal Workers Union and the National Association of Letter Carriers.
In fact, a recent ruling by an arbitrator for the Postal Service and the unions could affect the timeframe for delivery point sequencing to be completed and for the savings to be realized.
The arbitrator ruled that the Postal Service must offer mail-sorting jobs to postal workers instead of hiring private contractors at lower cost.
Last year, the Postal Service began using computerized video technology to transmit to private contractors - such as the Orkand Corp.'s facilities in Salem and Lynchburg - mail on which its machines could not decipher the addresses.
Workers at places like Orkand code the pieces of mail for electronic sorting at distant post offices. Orkand codes for Northern Virginia and Buffalo, N.Y.
The Roanoke post office does not use remote-site coders, but is Within a year, the trays will replace traditional mailbags for all carriers just as machines are supposed to eliminate the time that carriers spend sorting mail before heading out on their routes. scheduled to begin using them by 1995.
Orkand Program Director John Gracza said he does not believe the arbitrator's ruling will affect the company's current contracts or its chances to land new ones.
"It's still business as usual for us," Gracza said.
Orkand employs about 800 full-time and 550 part-time workers in Salem and Lynchburg, Gracza said.
By 1995, 20 percent of all letters were to have been routed by the remote bar-coding system, saving the Postal Service $5 billion a year.
The contracting, planned for 200 bar-coding centers in the next three years, eventually could take as many as 20,000 jobs, according to the postal workers' union Washington office.
by CNB