TRAVERSE CITY -- Anyone dashing to the mail box to get a card, letter or bill out on time may have to move a little quicker.
The U.S. Postal Service is moving to "standardize" mail collection times at mail boxes, post offices and processing centers across most of Michigan's Lower Peninsula, and will move up some collection times by as much as 90 minutes.
It's part of numerous cost-cutting and efficiency moves being implemented across the country as the agency looks to shrink a projected $6 billion-plus budget deficit this year.
"The Postal Service right now is going through some serious financial difficulty," said Jim Mruk, spokesman for the Great Lakes Area of the U.S. Postal Service. "We're looking at opportunities to cut costs."
The changes mean the last local daily mail collection is 6 p.m. at the Postal Service's processing and distribution plant along Garfield Road just south of Hammond Road.
The facility offered a 7:30 p.m. pick-up for the past several years, a service that came in handy for local business owners like attorney Michael Alanson, of Traverse City, who sometimes drove his mail to the plant in the early evening after completing daily paperwork.
"To have a timely postmark is extremely important," Alanson said. "I've been in court hearings where we've argued about postmarks."
The last collection at local post offices is 5 p.m., Mruk said. Mail pick-up in business and shopping collections zones is 3 p.m., and 1 p.m. in residential areas. Mruk said the schedule change affects most of Lower Michigan except the Metro Detroit, Jackson, Flint and Monroe areas. He didn't have an estimated cost savings from the standardized collection times.
"It's hard to put an exact number on that. It really has more to do with improving efficiency," Mruk said. "We're able to get mail into our collection processing plants more quickly."
Dan Windsor, the temporary postmaster in Traverse City this summer, said the Postal Service has taken other steps to reduce costs, including trimming hours at some smaller regional post offices and by leaving some positions vacant. No local layoffs have been made, he said.
The changes also raised questions about the futures of Postal Service processing plants in Traverse City and Gaylord, but Mruk said no changes are imminent at either facility. The Postal Service is required to go through a review and public comment process before making changes to its distribution centers. The Postal Service completed such a review of the Gaylord facility in 2006, but kept the plant open.
"At the moment, we have no formal study at either of those plants," he said.
Special delivery
The U.S. Postal Service is coordinating mail collection times at thousands of pick-up locations throughout Michigan. The new schedule is:
-- 1 p.m. at collection spots in residential areas
-- 3 p.m. in business and shopping districts
-- 5 p.m. at local post offices
-- 6 p.m. at Postal Service processing plants
Source: U.S. Postal Service
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