Postal Service notes 25% drop in volume of mails

Lolita Manalo started receiving over a dozen of Christmas cards mailed to her by friends and relatives from the Philippines as early as the first week of November last year. She has not received anything yet for this year.

However, Ms. Manalo now spends more time in front of the Internet-hooked computer browsing electronic greeting cards which have practically replaced those she had to pick up from her mailbox last year.

The advent of modern technology and the reliability of fast-transmission through the modem, which could transpire in a matter of seconds, has taken its toll on some of the world’s traditional services.

The United States Postal Service on Saipan takes note of this sudden shift even during the holiday season when the volume of mails is traditionally high that necessitates post office employees to spend extra hours at work to make sure all letters reach the addressees.

Postmaster John William San Nicolas estimates the volume of incoming mails and packages for this year’s holidays dropped 25 percent compared with those handled by the U.S. Postal Service in the Northern Marianas in 1999.

“In the first week of November last year, we already saw the volume of mails picking up and our employees working overtime. But this year, nobody is spending extra time at work because there is not as much mails and packages to handle compared to 1999,” he said.

Mr. San Nicolas pointed out that Internet services such as electronic greeting cards, e-mails and on-line banking, have drastically reduced the volume of incoming snail mails handled by the post office this year.

Recent surveys revealed the Internet has drawn millions of users throughout the world since its birth in the late 1970s although browsers from throughout the Northern Marianas are slowly increasing.

Published surveys on Internet usage disclosed there are over 377 million people all over the world logging on to the Internet each day as of September 2000, and technology experts predict the number to grow before the end of the year.

In the Asia-Pacific Region, there are at least 89.68 million people who connect to the Net through their modems, while there are more than 161 million browsers throughout the United States and Canada.

The number of hosts on the Internet has roughly tripled in the time from January 1994 to January 1996, from 2.2 million to 9.5 million. There were about 4.9 million hosts on the Internet in 1995 and 1.3 million in 1993.

“Our competition here in the Northern Marianas is the Internet which has taken over a lot of the services that we offer such as mails and bill payment through money order or checks. That’s what causing us a lot of money,” said Mr. San Nicolas.

Economic downturn

Changes in the spending behavior of consumers as a result of the economic downturn both in neighboring Asian countries and the mainland U.S. is also a major factor that caused the 25 percent reduction in the volume of Saipan-bound mails and packages.

According to Mr. San Nicolas, people have become a little cautious about their spending and obviously practical in the kinds of gifts that they intend to give away for the holidays, apparently minimizing their use of cards as Christmas present this year.

“The volume of mail is not picking up the way it was in the previous years. We don’t have much mails this year to necessitate our employees working overtime the way they did previously. It’s different because we are handling the mails without difficulties despite the season being peak,” he added.

Mr. San Nicolas also noted that post office employees were used to working at least six days a week, 10 hours a day during Christmas season in previous years. “There’s really a major slowdown this year.”

“Maybe the economic condition has something to do with it too. There’s a lot of possibilities. Maybe people are now sending money instead of packages, gifts or Christmas cards,” according to the postmaster.

He also mentioned the possibility that Christmas cards and packages may start arriving during the post-holiday season due to public impression that mails are delivered faster before and after the peak month of December.

“What can possibly happen this year is after Christmas, we may witness an influx of mails that include greeting cards and packages. They may just start coming in like crazy,” Mr. San Nicolas told an interview.

“I think that’s something that is going to happen this year. Instead of being early, people are just waiting for the last minute to send their Christmas presents although they were early last year and the years before that,” he added.

Mr. San Nicolas said, however, that the post office is prepared and ready to handle any increase in the volume of incoming mails and packages whether before, during or after the holidays.