Mail processing operations are expected to be transferred from the USPS Monmouth Processing & Distribution Center in Eatontown to the Trenton facility around May 15. ERIC SUCAR staff The U.S. Postal Service’s Monmouth Processing and Distribution Center in Eatontown will continue to receive mail and operate as a transportation hub after mail processing operations are transferred to the Trenton P&DC in May
“[The postal service] is only taking out the mail processing operations that are going on [at the Eatontown center]. They are going to bring them to Trenton,” USPS spokesman Ray Daiutolo said last week. “Customers bringing mail and all that is going to stay there for now.”
The USPS announcement on Feb. 23 was based on the results of studies begun five months ago.
However, the postal service said the consolidation scheduled to take place after May 15 would be contingent on pending legislation that would revise the entire postal service operation.
“[The Postal Service] made an agreement with Congress in early December. We were going to follow through with the studies, we were going to reach conclusions, but we promised Congress that we would not implement any of the decisions to consolidate the operations before May 15,” Daiutolo, a spokesman for the postal service, said in an interview on Feb. 24.
“We wanted to provide Congress and the administration with time to work on potential comprehensive legislation for the postal service, so that commitment still stands.”
On Sept. 15, 2011, the Monmouth P&DC became one of 252 postal processing centers nationwide slated to consolidate and transfer operations to a regional facility.
According to the study done by the postal service, consolidating mail-processing operations would increase efficiency and improve productivity.
“The postal service is facing a scenario where we have all these large processing facilities that are very proximate to each other and they are all severely under-utilized because our mail volumes and our workload [have] declined very significantly and very consistently within the last six years,” Daiutolo said.
“So we have all these large facilities close to each other doing the same things. However, we are not maximizing their capacities.”
The study also projects the postal service would see an estimated cost savings of $7 million a year due to the consolidation.
Although the Eatontown center will remain open, Daiutolo said there would still be cost savings.
“The transportation savings in this particular situation is only about $110,000 a year. When you look at other transportation savings, it could be $1 million a year,” Daiutolo said. “Each facility is different and looked at individually. There are some savings but the savings are smaller.”
The decision to move mail processing from the Monmouth P&DC to the Trenton P&DC was based on geographical location as well as the size of the facility, he said.
“The Trenton facility is a much larger facility that has more capacity and has the ability to absorb the workload that is taking place at Monmouth,” Daiutolo said .
Eatontown officials have raised concerns that moving processing operations could potentially have a negative impact on the borough.
“I understand the difficulties the USPS is facing, but we have already been hit hard with the closing of Fort Monmouth and cannot afford another blow to the area’s economy and employment level,” council President Anthony Talerico said in an email Feb. 26.
Daiutolo said that it is not definite how many jobs would be affected but estimated that there would be a net decrease of approximately 104 positions.
“That all depends on the current situation,” he said. “We have employees coming in to say that they are retiring. That changes those projections.
“We won’t know more until they are ready to implement what the impacts would be.”
In addition, career employees have repositioning and reassignment opportunities, which are stipulated in collective bargaining agreements, he said.
“Each of those agreements have provisions that stipulate how repositioning and reassignments are handled for career employees when actions like this are implemented,” Daiutolo said. “All of those will be followed according to the respective bargaining agreement.”
Daiutolo added that alternate plans are being looked into.
“Congress understands the postal service’s situation,” Daiutolo said. “They understand that the postal service is looking for some regulatory and legislative changes relative to retirees, health benefits and delivery frequency.
“We are very hopeful. We look forward to working on what the future of the postal service will look like.”