Addressing Postal Complaints

Mail delivery is a subject I’ve never had much to complain about. I see my mail at exactly the same time each day--when I walk in the door of my home after leaving work.

But many people stay home during the day, and mail delivery is a part of their routines. Arthur Varnum of Fullerton is a good example.

For 30 years, his family has received mail in the mornings, usually by 11 a.m. Varnum, a graduate of the Naval Academy in Annapolis and now retired from the electronics business, likes it that way. To Varnum it’s a part of getting the day off to a good start.

But postal automation has reached Fullerton. And it’s left Varnum among the unhappy campers. Now he doesn’t get his mail until 2:30 p.m. at the earliest--on occasion it’s been as late as 6 p.m. Others in Fullerton have seen their mail delivery slide into the afternoon hour too.

Varnum didn’t complain to the post office, he said, because “I didn’t want to hear their sad story.” So he wrote to The Times, hoping someone would look into it.

Unfortunately, the answer on Varnum’s mail delivery isn’t something he’s going to like: He’d better get used to it.

There’s also a chance that some of you could be in the same predicament in coming months. Changes are taking place in delivery routes in Orange County. Only half the county is affected so far, but the changes will reach the entire county in the next year or so.

Here’s a short story behind what has happened to Varnum’s mail:

The person who delivers mail to your door doesn’t spend the whole day on his or her route. In fact, for years postal carriers spent half their working days sorting mail at the post office, to ensure that your mail was put in the correct carrier’s bag. Then they’d hit the streets, delivering mail during the second half of the day.

But now much of that sorting has been automated. Machines now do about two-thirds of the in-house work that carriers were doing by hand. So how does the post office justify giving mail carriers an eight-hour day to work?

“You expand their routes, so that they have more time on the streets,” said Terri Bouffiou, Orange County spokeswoman for the U.S. Postal Service.

With each carrier covering more ground, fewer carriers are needed. It’s the law of the jungle: Cutting jobs saves costs. When the automated process recently hit Fullerton, 17 routes were eliminated out of some 120. So if your carrier has more houses or businesses to cover, it stands to reason he or she might wind up at your house later than you’ve been used to.

The Postal Service calls it “squaring up the routes”--making them more even. Bouffiou acknowledges several complaints from the Fullerton area, but says mail service has actually been quicker to some people in that city. She says the Postal Service has done what it can to keep delivery from being too late on routes that have been expanded.

Some of the complaints have been from the mail carriers themselves. Because they can’t start their days until the machines have done their jobs, the carriers must work later into the day.

“It used to be in Fullerton that no mail carrier worked past 3:30 p.m.,” Bouffiou said. “Now many of them have to work until after 5, and they aren’t happy about it.”

Varnum’s position is that automation ought to improve service, not make it worse. Bouffiou doesn’t disagree with that philosophy, but asks for a little understanding from the public:

“We sort through a million and a half pieces of mail in Orange County every night,” she said. “It’s just a sea of mail. When you drop a letter in the mailbox for New York City, there isn’t some little genie that rides all the way through to make sure it’s delivered. It’s just one of 180 billion pieces of mail the Postal Service handles in this country every year.”

OK, it’s a big job. I’m not taking sides in this dispute. But I’m joining Varnum if suddenly I don’t get my Golf World on the right day.

Hope for All: Several people have called or written asking if the amphitheater dedication at the Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace on Sunday at 1 p.m. will be open to the public. The answer is even better than yes.

The library will waive the usual $5.95 entry fee ($3.95 for seniors) if you want to come to the outdoor ceremony or attend the book signings later. But it asks that you pay the fee if you plan to go ahead and tour the whole library.

Special guests Sunday will be Bob and Dolores Hope, who funded the building of the amphitheater, and the Nixons’ younger daughter, Julie Nixon Eisenhower, and her husband, David Eisenhower. All will sign autographs later, if you buy their books (or Dolores Hope’s new CD) from the gift shop.

Roadblock to Graduation: Last week I wrote about Josephine and Gentry Vu, a married couple both scheduled to graduate with honors in biochemistry from Cal State Fullerton on Sunday. Things don’t always work out as planned.

The Vus’ car was rear-ended on the freeway en route to graduation ceremonies. Though they and their 2-year-old son, Dennis, were not injured, the accident kept them from making their own graduation. Cal State Fullerton spokesman Dave Reid told me the couple will be feted at a private mini-ceremony by university officials next week.

Wrap-Up: Here’s a tip I learned from Terri Bouffiou if you want faster delivery of your mail: Print, instead of handwriting, the mailing address. The automated system gets two chances to scan your mail and move it to the next correct spot, she said. But if it can’t figure out what you are saying after two tries--meaning your handwriting is so bad--then your mail is diverted to be read by a human, which can cause a delay.

But most important, Bouffiou said: Get the ZIP Code correct. The most common cause of delays in the entire system is wrong ZIP Codes.

Jerry Hicks’ column appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Readers may reach Hicks by call-ing The Times Orange County Edition at (714) 966-7823 or by fax to (714) 966-7711, or e-mail to jerry.hicks@latimes.com