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Atlanta’s postal operations shifting to Duluth?

2:49 pm January 13, 2010, by jgalloway

It looks like suburban Gwinnett County is about to become the center of metro Atlanta’s universe when it comes to snail mail.

Check out this public meeting presentation by the U.S. Postal Service, dated next week, describing the benefits of moving its Atlanta area operations from East Point to Duluth, 33 miles away.

Benefits include an annual savings of $5.6 million. Workforce would be decreased by 38 positions.

Mail sorting in Athens has already been shifted to Duluth. One reason offered for the consolidation: “From 1998 though the end of fiscal year 2008, mail volume for this category has declined by 19 billion pieces, approximately 29 percent.”

Blame the Internet.

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15 comments Add your comment

Daedalus

January 13th, 2010
4:12 pm

Hey Jim — I seem to recall that the AJC is also moving to Duluth (or is it Norcross? I can’t tell the difference once I’m OTP).

Anyhoo, y’all should consider merging operations with this Post Office — maybe they’ll give you a bulk rate and you can mail the AJC instead of home delivery. Old news is still news, its just stale, maybe even ripe.

Deb A

January 13th, 2010
4:14 pm

Sorry Jim, but you are incorrect. They would be moving it from Hapeville, not East Point. Given how the map is set up I can see how you could think it is in East Point, but as someone who goes there all the time, trust me when I say it’s in Hapeville. Poor Hapeville, first loosing Ford, now this.

Andre

January 13th, 2010
4:42 pm

What’s smart about moving that away from the Southside when the Airport is a short trip away? We take another hit down here, this is just awful and sad.

Chris Farris

January 13th, 2010
4:43 pm

Typical Mainstream media to blame the internet. Just kidding you do a great job here.

Gwinnett Buzz » Blog Archive » Gwinnett to become main mail processor for Atlanta?

January 13th, 2010
5:08 pm

[...] Galloway in his “Political Insider” column at AJC.com, Gwinnett could soon become the center of the mail sorting universe for metro Atlanta.  A consolidation of Atlanta area mail operations would save the U.S. Postal Service $5.6 million. [...]

Elf on the Shelf

January 13th, 2010
5:11 pm

I don’t blame the post office for moving to Duluth, where there are fewer stray dogs chasing mailmen around.

Clay

January 13th, 2010
6:16 pm

The USPS has a large operation on Boggs Rd near Discover Mills. (That is Duluth?) The AJC is off Jimmy Carter in Norcross…

Rich

January 13th, 2010
6:21 pm

We should have mail deliver 3 days a week for residential. Half of the homes on M-W-F and the other half on T-TH-Sat.

Bobbs

January 13th, 2010
11:10 pm

As Deb A said, Atlanta’s post office operations are based in Hapeville. I also, don’t see why they would be saving money as the post office is check to check with the airport. Also, its a relatively centrally located and MARTA accessible 24 hour post office. If they do move the operations to Duluth, hopefully they will not move the 24 hour post office. I think it would be a large blow to people who live ITP and small business owners, who would have to scurry deep into Gwinnett to send things at the last minute. That place is always crowded.

say what?

January 14th, 2010
6:28 pm

Bobbs The Post office plans to shutdown the entire operation at 3900 Crown Rd. I do not understand how moving AWAY from the railroad and the busiest airport is a cost saving measure. In my email to my county commissioner two months ago, I made mention that this would devastate the Southern Cresent and had asked that our economic development department get with other counties on the southside who will feel the impact of the money drain to Gwinnett.

With the traffic congestion in metro Atlanta, I do not understand moving trucks onto the highway for longer periods of time. The commute to work for employees as far away as LaGrange must not have been considered. For the revitalization occurring along Central Ave from Hapeville to College Park, these small businesses will be affected as well.
The change will save less than $6 million in a budget well over $1Billion per year. Something else is going on with this plan, Atlanta proper must have offended the USPS in some way, or North Metro has filled the coifers of those making the decision on this move.

Gwinnett is Greedy

January 14th, 2010
7:01 pm

Gwinnett seems to be getting everything… NCR, Braves minor league stadium, now the main operations center for snail mail? Seriously, when will people realize that the Southside of Atlanta is NOT a bad area? When will people realize the Northside is not all of that and a bag a chips? The Southside is far less congested than the Northside and access to the airport is MUCH easier. USPS truly need to consider the impact on the Southside’s economy and residents.

James

January 14th, 2010
8:55 pm

The power point is less than detailed. Would love to see exactly how they plan to save that much by moving 33 miles away, especially as they are increasing the distance from heavy rail and the airport as mentioned above. AJC needs to run a follow-up story on this.

Postalgirl

January 15th, 2010
10:16 pm

Deb A is Deb Grasic- wife of Postmaster Grasic. Moving mail to Duluth is great for this area of town that has high dollar income. The south side, which is loosing money and jobs is again screwed. Deals will be dealt and the money flows where the influencial people go. Debi is head of Human Resources in Duluth. No wonder the money will follow the mail.

Robin

January 17th, 2010
3:52 pm

This is absolutely crazy. The airport is right across the street from Crown Rd. and they still cannot get the mail to the associate offices on time. I guess with moving all operations to Duluth, the associate offices need to open at 12:00 noon so all the hub mail can be transported from the airport to Duluth them back to all the associate office and be deliver to keep those numbers lying. Another brilliant idea of the postal service. Has anyone ever thought about asking the Postmasters or the employees that really make it happen and stop asking the paper pushers behind desk that are very, very depressed anyway and don’t care…….

Unbelievable

January 18th, 2010
1:12 pm

This is apparently an idea of a pencil pushing number cruncher that has no idea of what the real world is like. They say it will not change the service but improve. It is hard enough to get mail to the farthest south side offices now from the Hapeville plant they want to close. So this is there solution, lets move our operation 33 miles north so that all of the trucks must travel through the city of Atlanta in both directions (inbound and outbound during rush hour) to get mail to and from all of the southside offices even though we can not get it to them now at a decent time. Is North Metro going to process faster because they have more to process? Are they going to be able to get more mail out and on the trucks at least 1 hour sooner to even be close to the current arrival time at the southside offices? This is just a couple of questions—It is not all about numbers!!! If you live south of Atlanta–Your delivery service will suffer!