And five Accountable Paper Depositories
The Postal Service notified NAPUS President Dale Goff that they will be consolidating its supply chain configuration in order to reduce the total cost of distribution and fulfillment for the Accountable Paper Network. The USPS plans to consolidate and close 65 Stamp Distribution Offices (SDO’s) and the five Accountable Paper Depositories (APD’s). The Postal Service will now consolidate the network into six Stamp Distribution Centers (SDC’s). President Dale Goff voiced NAPUS concerns in a letter to the Postal Service on October 15th which included: “What about emergency orders; time frame for receipt orders; scheduling for ordering; and response to customers when we can’t get the special orders or just normal inventory.” These same issues have been brought forward in previous consultative sessions.
Additional information from PostalReporter:
As reported earlier this year, “The Postal Service purchases and distributes accountable paper1 to its network of over 39,000 retail units across the U.S. for re-sale to the general public. It accomplishes this fulfillment effort through its network of 79 SDOs, two stamp services centers (SSCs), four Accountable Paper Depositories (APDs), and one Stamp Fulfillment Services (SFS) site.”
“The Postal Service has identified opportunities to re-engineer its accountable paper fulfillment network and save between $2 million and $14 million annually by consolidating operations.”
“The SDO is a Postal Service unit other than the parent sectional center facility (SCF) that is, for security reasons, designated to supply postage stamp stock to post offices, stations, branches, and contract stations within its service area.”
Other descriptions:
accountable paper depository — A stamp distribution office (SDO) designated to provide to other SDOs items such as emergency orders, reserve supplies of stamps that cannot be ordered through bulk requisitioning, and philatelic products produced by Postal Service contractors.
stamp distribution network — A system that encompasses an area formerly serviced by multiple stamp distribution offices. It provides all accountable paper stock and defines ordering cycles for each unit (post office, station, branch, or contract station) within its service area regardless of size.
stamp distribution office — A section of a major post office that receives and disburses stamps, stationery, philatelic products, and nonpostal items. It provides stamps and stamp products for all post offices, stations, branches, and contract stations within its service area that are not authorized to order in bulk quantities.
If post offices do not offer stamps they must go to
corner stores where a first class stamp sells for
50 cents. Why isnt the P>O> taking advantage of this
for their customers? I am not computer literate so
dont know if I missed something.
I spent 16 years working in Accountable Paper and 10 years prior to that in window Services retiring in 2008 (35 years total). I can see the logic in some consolidation. The savings in salaries alone will be immense, but taking a system this large down to 6 Distribution Centers does not seem realistic.
I realize that paying bills electronically has cut into the use of stamps alot, but on the other hand -the Postal Service has many customers that depend on certain Stamp stock to be available.
Just a reminder to the offices that service the public. You know your customer base and the customers that come in regularly for certain stock and are frequent mailers. If you don’t, you should and you should stock accordingly. This also means that the finance gurus in the Inspector General and Inspection Service Offices need to loosen up accountability rules to allow you to have the stock needed to be prepared for the unexpected.
I hope that when this all comes about the powers that be in Washington DC realized that Stamp Orders, (even with added shipping personell) will have a longer turnaround time. Emergency orders will no longer be emergencies, but will mean upset customers because of obsolete accountability rules imposed by finance.
I wish all of the Accountable Paper people who survive this transition luck.
im retired from the postal service and i had 35and ahalf years in the po im sorry to see such a blind knee jerk approach to po operations its people in charge that dont have the capacity to be in charge ,as a previous employee and 95 percent of the time in window operations i appreciated my job as i got older and treated my customers as someone important and i cared thats what is needed too many times i saw senior people in customer service that had a nasty attitude instead of realizing they pay our salaries, we need to try to survive ,i thank God for my attitude of appriciation towards our customers we all haVE to have extreme inteligence towards our customers if we are to survive in this economy , and genuine caring.
So true rhody. So true.
they estimate savings of 2 million to 14 million. they can use the savings to install GPS in all postal vehicles. they will also need to hire more supervisors to check the GPS records.
SOMEONE IN CONGRESS, PLEASE INVESTIGATE POSTAL MANAGEMENT BEFORE THEY CRASH THE POSTAL SERVICE..