Editorial: Mail Distribution Center

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Farther from us is better?

Monday, October 30, 2006

"Don't let our mail service fall apart."

So said the signs carried by protesters from the U.S. Postal Service who marched in Fort Myers last week. They decried the idea of the region's distribution center being moved from Daniels Parkway all the way north to Sarasota.

Readers who saw our photo of the pickets were struck by the irony: Some believe the mail service has already fallen apart.

The Fort Myers distribution center is among 139 around the country on a U.S. Postal Service list for possible consolidation. There is a fear of lost jobs, and the pickets were postal workers from around the state.

We suppose in this day and age of e-mail that the Postal Service has to consider every possible efficiency to compete. Plus, the Naples area knows firsthand the Fort Myers area's apprehension about losing its postmark.

Still, we have a "show me" bias on this one. We have a hard time seeing how shipping more mail northward, only to be redistributed southward, where it came from, is even a small step toward faster and better mail service. There is a point at which regionalization reaches a point of diminishing returns, and some mail customers think we're already there.

Most people, as a matter of fact, don't consider Sarasota part of our region, Southwest Florida.

Call us parochial. Call us stuck in our ways. But we think long-distance is for phone calls, more so than improved mail-handling.

Comments

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Posted by youwilltapout (anonymous) at 8:14 a.m. on October 30, 2006 (Suggest removal)

Luckily your headlines the other day on this matter didn't say, "disgruntled postal employees go postal" J/K

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Posted by phatstuff (anonymous) at 11:56 a.m. on October 30, 2006 (Suggest removal)

collier county needs its own distribution center.

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Posted by Rosy (anonymous) at 3:25 p.m. on October 30, 2006 (Suggest removal)

I like Phat's idea.

Don't ask me to believe that if I send a letter or check from Naples to Naples, that it is more efficient to send it via Ft. Myers, let alone Sarasota. It defies common sense.

I was a consultant to the Postal Service in D.C. for several years, so I've seen their ideas of efficiency first hand. However, my carrier here in Naples is first rate.

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Posted by maddog59 (anonymous) at 7:51 p.m. on October 30, 2006 (Suggest removal)

I use US Mail frequently to the Naples area from 1700 miles away and on occasion it is 2 day service, never more than 3. If it's not broken, don't fix it.