AT THE POST OFFICE: IN THE LINE OF IRE.

Byline: Dana Bartholomew Staff Writer

It's a holiday rite of postal resignation: dozens of customers snaking around the post office, inching stacks of parcels toward too few clerks.

The holiday rush is just getting under way, but gift-givers are already whining about snaking lines and soaring rates.

``I can't believe it - the line is way out the door,'' Debby Arian said recently as she walked past two dozen patrons awaiting two clerks at the Woodland Hills Post Office.

The United States Postal Service, nearly $1.7 billion in the red last year, raised its rates almost 8 percent June 30 - the third hike in four years.

Now lengthy waits, coupled with the higher cost of mailing Hanukkah and Christmas packages, are driving some customers to alternatives.

Joan Moore, 72, of Canoga Park said it will be cheaper to send her packages to New York by FedEx than via the U.S. Postal Service. Shari Veditz, 58, of Woodland Hills said she'll also go the FedEx route.

``I'm real good at sending FedEx the night before - costs me $75 to $100, but my kids are used to it,'' said Veditz, standing with a box of business mail in a line 25 deep at the Canoga Park Post Office.

``The problem is, they only have two (clerks) up there. I was here 10 minutes - nobody moved.''

A recent consumer comparison of coast-to-coast parcel rates for ground and overnight shipments found it pays to shop around.

``It's very inexpensive to get a letter to somebody (through the Postal Service) if you don't care when the letter arrives,'' said Robert Krughoff, president of the Center for the Study of Services, publisher of Consumer's Checkbook, whose latest edition conducted the comparison.

``But for ordinary consumers who are trying to send packages, it makes a lot of sense to look at alternatives.''

Where FedEx charges $5.86 to truck a 5-pound package from Los Angeles to the East Coast, UPS charges $8.53 for the same ground shipment.

The U.S. Postal Service, once the leader in mail rates, now charges $9.43 for a 5-pound Parcel Post (fourth-class) package without guaranteeing a delivery date. A Priority Mail (first-class) customer can expect to pay $12.15 for the same package.

Customers at mom-and-pop mailer services can expect to pay more - but wait less.

``With us, you avoid going down to the post office and Federal Express,'' said David Sperling, owner of Mail Boxes Etc., in Granada Hills, which charges $12 - double the usual cost - to send a 5-pound package through FedEx.

``We usually have you in and out in five to 10 minutes, whereas in the post office you have to wait a half-hour.''

Others were more critical of the Postal Service's performance.

``Despite the propaganda that it's improving, the feedback we're getting is that it is deteriorating,'' said Rick Merritt, executive director of PostalWatch, an advocate of small business mailers based in Virginia City, Va.

``Until the USPS gets their financial house in order, they'll continue to have deteriorating services and rising prices - a formula for financial disaster. At some point, people just won't bother.''

Despite investing billions in ``productivity enhancing'' automation and information technology, the Postal Service has seen productivity rise only 11 percent in 30 years, according to the U.S. General Accounting Office.

But steady rate increases have been unable to cover the costs of delivering roughly 689 million pieces of mail each day.

By next year, Postal Service officials expect deficits to balloon to $2 billion to $3 billion, with another rate hike expected as early as 2004.

As for post office customer service, Merritt said union work rules prevent workers in the backroom from rushing to help clerks overrun by customers at the counter.

``Their labor structure is prehistoric,'' he said. ``This is exactly what happens in a system that has evolved over a period of time with no competition whatsoever.

``Who ends up holding the bag? The consumer.''

A spokeswoman for the U.S. Postal Service in Los Angeles said that, while no additional staff has been hired yet, additional clerks may be added to counters during the rush.

``We're looking forward to it,'' said Terri Bouffiou. ``It actually is a fun time to work at the Postal Service. People working in the post office, they're excited about getting their packages off and meeting their clients' needs.''

John Sanchez, a postal supervisor in Woodland Hills, said the true rush begins right after Thanksgiving.

The Postal Service reports its busiest mail day is Dec. 16, its biggest delivery day on Dec. 18. Between now and New Year's, it expects to deliver 20 billion pieces of mail.

For San Fernando Valley residents, conducting business at a post office often means traveling outside their community in search of shorter lines.

Many complain their local post office phone lines have been severed in favor of a generic 800 customer service line.

Cleve Christie, 43, was No. 23 in the queue at the Woodland Hills post office when he uttered a sigh of resignation.

``Nowhere else to go,'' he said, clutching a Christmas package to Lito Beach, N.Y. ``It's always an exercise in patience.''

CAPTION(S):

photo, box

Photo:

Donna Bamber of Woodland Hills waits in line at that community's post office on Wednesday afternoon.

Hans Gutknecht/Staff Photographer

Box:

THE COST OF SHIPPING A PACKAGE FROM COAST TO COAST

SOURCE: Consumers' Checkbook; various carriers

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