Changes to post office system cause long waits

An increase in processed packages, a new locker system and the relocation of freshman mailboxes from East Campus have contributed to long wait times at the Bryan Center post office.
An increase in processed packages, a new locker system and the relocation of freshman mailboxes from East Campus have contributed to long wait times at the Bryan Center post office.

Students attempting to pick up packages from the West Campus mailboxes found themselves waiting in line longer than usual this year.

The first few weeks of the school year are typically a time with increased mail delivery, said Angel Wingate, assistant vice president for the Office of Information Technology. But several other elements contributed to the long wait times—including a new package locker system and the fact that freshman mailboxes were relocated from East Campus to the Bryan Center this year.

“At the beginning of each semester, we typically experience a heavy influx in the number of packages we receive for the first 2-3 weeks,” Wingate wrote in an email Friday. “So lines are not unusual during this time.”

She noted, however, that a 22 percent increase in the number of packages processed between Aug. 15 and Sept. 15 this year—compared to the same time period in 2013—probably contributed to the longer lines.

The new locker system is designed to provide students access to their packages 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Students are notified through the current automated system that their package is being held either at the service counter or in one of the new package lockers in the mailbox lobby.

If the package is being held in one of the lockers, students need to retrieve a numbered locker key that has been placed in their mailbox. Once opened, the locker notifies the system that the package has been retrieved and keeps the key, which becomes reassigned to another student for use.

But the new system has confused some students—contributing to this year's longer lines.

“Our staff in the Mailbox Service Counter has noted that frequently they are assisting a student who has been waiting in line to pick up his [or her] package, only to find out after looking in the back staging area, that the package is in one of our lockers,” Wingate wrote.

She noted that this scenario creates an unnecessary wait time for the student and further delays for all others in line.

This year's longer lines were noted by students in popular Facebook group Fix My Campus, which is sponsored by Duke Student Government and fields requests for campus improvements.

“I’m currently standing in a 20-30 minute long mail line at the Bryan Center,” senior Ruslan Ardashev wrote in a post that garnered more than 30 likes.

Wingate noted that the post office has taken several steps to cut back on the wait times. Effective this week, the mailbox services will use two separate email accounts to send notifications of packages waiting; one from mailboxservicecounter@duke.edu and one from packagelockers@duke.edu.

“We are hopeful that using different accounts to send the messages, in addition to continuing to put the appropriate content information within the emails, will help students quickly and easily determine where to go to retrieve their packages,” Wingate said.

She emphasized that staff is taking several other steps to address the longer lines and increased wait times. As well as working on ways to better publicize the package locker system and how it works, staff’s hours were recently adjusted in order for the mailboxes to remain open during lunch. Current hours are from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. with no breaks in between.

“We are reviewing our operational hours and considering what adjustments we should make [both] during the first few weeks of school and throughout the academic year,” she said.

Staff is reviewing hour-by-hour data on package pickup as they consider an optimal staffing model for the service counter during the first two to three weeks of each semester, Wingate said. Operational processes such as space utilization are also under review, in order to ensure the most efficient use of resources and maximization of productivity.

Wingate added that the addition of freshman mailboxes at the Bryan Center means that all mailboxes are now consolidated in one location. Students will now be able to keep the same mailbox address for their entire stay on campus, ending the additional line burden caused by the mass issuance of keys at the beginning of the fall semester.

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