[TMC] North American Postal Delays.....

[Jordan Arndt]

This is just a note for anyone dealing with Postal delays within North
America....
I have just been informed that there are delays right now as far as
incoming and outgoing Postal shipments.... these are due to new Postal
Regulations and increased security that have been put in place since the
tragic events of last fall...

All incoming mail into the U.S. has been directed through 3 Outgoing
Canadian locations, ( now increased to 4 since the re-establishment of
Calgary as an approved outgoing port ), and the limiting of Incoming (to
the U.S. ) Ports of entry to 4 locations.Prior to this , all outgoing mail
from Canada was directed to Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal. Adding Calgary
has just be approved, and things seem to be getting back to 'normal'. but
this is nothing like it was 1 year ago.
We now live in a changed world, and we should get used to the delays that
are currently in place as it has been developed for our protection and
security....

There are also ONLY 5 ports of entry  for the entire U.S.... as opposed to
the over 18 Ports of entry that were being used prior to Jan 1st 2001...
This has caused backlogs for those who live far from one of these ports...
Should you live far from both  the outgoing and incoming ports , you can
expect even longer delays, as much as 21-28 days in some cases...


Prior to the Olympic Games being held in Salt Lake City, mail had to go
through even more stringent incoming mail scanning, X-raying and manual
inspection of all items in the Postal system, including envelopes and
postcards ebing X-rayed.

Right nowmail coming into Canada has become more 'reliable' and the system
is also under increased security.

Prior to last fall, Postal Services were allowed to use pretty much any
Airline flight with available space, but now there are only 3 or 4 flights
daily that will carry mail.
This has added delays to the process of handling the mail.
There is also now a "HOLD" placed on every piece of mail that was not there
prior to the new International Postal Regulations before it can even be
placed on an aircraft. The delay is 12 - 24 hours , plus the time of the
flight... this might seem small, but the system has not yet caught up on
the backlog of mail caused by tighter security and the re-training of
postal personel to deal with , and actually carry out the new directives.

You may or may not have this confirmed by your local Postmaster, or Postal
Superintendant, but this information was given to me in reply to some
requests I have made regarding very slow incoming and outgoing mail, and
packages that have been returned to me through the Postal Service.

Again.. this is an FYI...... 73 de Jordan.....