NEW YORK, NY — You know that white tray that you keep your winter boots in? That extra white bucket where your holiday ornaments are stored, back in the closet? They all say “PROPERTY OF THE US POSTAL SERVICE” on them.
And they have to go back.
New York postal officials are asking anyone that has postal property to return it back to your local post office or nearby mail processing and distribution centers.
These missing pieces, collectively known as Mail Transport Equipment (MTE) have grown to cost the Postal Service nearly $50 million per year in replacement expenses. This postal equipment was stolen or inadvertently taken and never returned by customers.
"This is serious. We are in a financial crisis and simply cannot afford this type of unnecessary expense," said William Schnaars New York District Manager for the postal service. "The equipment is federal property, and we want it back."
The postal equipment has largely disappeared over the past several years from the nation's USPS mail equipment facilities. Postal tubs have dropped from a population of 20 million down to around 20,000 last fall.
Pallets cost up to $20 each, said Schnaars. “That is four books of stamps, plain and simple.”
Plastic/paper letter trays up to $2.75 per tray and those “PROPERTY OF UNITED STATES POSTAL SERVICE” tubs cost around $4 each, losses add up quickly.
“It may seem like the one or two pieces of postal equipment utilized by customers for personal use or stacked away isn’t going to hurt a company as big as the Postal Service, but it does cost us money to replace it, because we are continually using that equipment,” said Robert Brown, New York City Postmaster.
In the New York City area alone it is probably in the tens of thousands of dollars of equipment that remains missing, once you add everything up.
Customers may drop off small volumes of tubs and trays at any post office. Arrangements can be made for the Postal Service to pick up large amounts of equipment and/or pallets, postcons and carts by contacting your local post office manager or by calling the New York Mail Transport Service Center at 856-546-0852. Please provide your business name and address, the type of mail transport equipment and quantity.
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A self-supporting government enterprise, the U.S. Postal Service is the only delivery service that reaches every address in the nation, 151 million residences, businesses and Post Office Boxes. The Postal Service receives no tax dollars for operating expenses, and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations. With 32,000 retail locations and the most frequently visited website in the federal government, usps.com, the Postal Service has annual revenue of more than $65 billion and delivers nearly 40 percent of the world’s mail. If it were a private sector company, the U.S. Postal Service would rank 35th in the 2011 Fortune 500. In 2011, the U.S. Postal Service was ranked number one in overall service performance, out of the top 20 wealthiest nations in the world, Oxford Strategic Consulting. Black Enterprise and Hispanic Business magazines ranked the Postal Service as a leader in workforce diversity. The Postal Service has been named the Most Trusted Government Agency for six years and the sixth Most Trusted Business in the nation by the Ponemon Institute.
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