Chicago District updates Chicago Congressional delegation, Aldermen on postal improvement progress

Rep. Davis says Post Office delivering on promises

CHICAGO — District Manager/Postmaster Gloria E. Tyson said that service levels in the Chicago Post Office are “moving in the right direction,” in a briefing on U.S. Postal Service performance for Chicago-area elected officials August 30 at the Cardiss Collins Processing and Distribution Center.

Tyson and other Postal Service officials provided an update on efforts to improve mail service in Chicago, an overview of the national postal reform bill signed last year, and an U.S. Postal Inspection Service presentation on identity theft for members of Chicago's Congressional delegation, Chicago Aldermen, and their staff representatives.

Tyson cited Chicago's 93% overnight delivery rating in the most recent Postal Service audit, up from 90% earlier this year, as evidence that the district's extensive service improvement efforts are making a difference. Since April, the Chicago Post Office has placed 269 new letter carriers at 40 stations, overhauled its automated mail sorting equipment at the downtown Chicago and Irving Park Road processing facilities, and reviewed all 2,500 Chicago delivery routes, making more than 143,000 corrections to its address database.

In addition, Tyson said that the Post Office has also upgraded training for all mail sorting equipment technicians and operators, provided refresher training to all delivery supervisors, and graduated 12 candidates from its entry-level supervisor training program. She told the briefing that customer advisory councils have been established in Chicago neighborhoods served by the Jackson Park, Daniel Doffyn, Wicker Park, Roberto Clemente, Edgebrook and Southwest Carrier Annex stations.

Tyson acknowledged that the district still has room for improvement, despite the progress made in the last several months. “We still have our work cut out for us,” she said, “but it is obvious from the positive trends we're seeing that our employees are committed to providing Chicago customers with a high level of customer service. Our focus is to take our district and our service levels from good, which is where we are now, to great. We are refining all of those processes that will ensure continuous improvement.”

Rep. Danny K. Davis (D-7) complemented Tyson and the Chicago staff on the service improvement progress to date, noting positive trends including productivity gains and a decline in constituent complaints. “I commend and congratulate the new leadership of the Chicago Postal Service for what I consider some positive movement toward finding solutions to some very serious problems,” Rep. Davis said. “Any way that you cut it, you would have to say it's a case of promises made, promises delivered.”

Aldermen Ariel Reboyas (30th Ward), Rey Colon (35th Ward) and Vi Daley (43rd Ward), representatives of Reps. Bobby Rush (D-1), Jesse Jackson, Jr. (D-2), Dan Lipinski (D-3), Luis Gutierrez (D-4), Rahm Emanuel (D-5) and Jan Schkaowsky (D-9), and representatives from 12 Aldermanic offices also attended the two-hour briefing.

The Chicago District of the U.S. Postal Service employs more than 8,800 career employees and delivers more than 2.1 billion pieces of mail a year to more than 1.2 million homes, businesses and Post Office boxes in a 255-square mile geographic area that encompasses the City of Chicago and six surrounding suburbs, ZIP Codes 606-608.