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State Mail Service Faces Uncertain Future As Volume Drops

units.miamioh.edu

State Mail and Distribution Services provides mail delivery for state agencies, cities, and Special Service Districts from Ogden to Spanish Fork. Director of State Purchasing and General Services Kent Beers said that an audit of the SMDS was called for after a noticeable decline in the volume of delivered mail over the past few years.

He said that government agencies in the Wasatch Front will now see a rate increase for mail delivery.

“They recommended a rate structuring program. Part of the rate structuring program is a flat fee for delivery anywhere you’re at based on mileage and then the rate,” Beers said. “We’re adjusting those rates, we’re giving all the agencies the opportunity to opt out. If they feel like the rate that they’ll be charged for us to cover our costs is too high, we will assist them to return back to the U.S. Postal Service.”

Over the past year, 12 SMDS employees have been let go and Beers said that more positions will soon be eliminated. He added that mail delivery routes will also be restructured.

“Part of the plan also includes the elimination of a number of employees and we hope to achieve that through attrition. We’re starting to reduce the number of routes, the number of pick-ups. Agencies where we were going two and three times a day we’re now going one time a day,” he said. “Agencies where it simply doesn’t make financial sense to run to that route, we’re eliminating those routes. That’s part of the whole restructuring and reorganization of state mail services.”

Despite the changes in delivery, Beers insisted that state agencies and local governments around the Wasatch Front are still saving money with SMDS.