By Susan Mann
Caribbean Net News St Thomas-St John Correspondent
Email: susan@caribbeannetnews.com

ST THOMAS, USVI: Delegate to Congress Donna Christensen has asked US Postmaster General John Potter to institute a new mailing system for the US Virgin Islands as the current system is failing Virgin Islanders.

In a letter to Potter, Christensen requested that the territory "return to its former status of having its own postal station, with its identity designated and visibly shown through our own postal cancellation."

In October of 2003, the US Postal Service attempted to remedy on going customer complaints about inefficient mail delivery by sending all USVI mail to San Juan, Puerto Rico for machine sorting. The mail is then returned to the USVI the following day for delivery.

Since mail through out the US territory was being hand sorted, it was believed that the on-time delivery rate would be greatly improved. The US Postal Service has an expectation of better than a 90 percent on-time rate.

Delegate Donna Christiansen

The delegate’s written request states, "I am also requesting that we explore a better system for handling mail that is going out of and coming into the Virgin Islands , a process that must be more effective and efficient than the present flawed and unproductive process," Christensen wrote.

She said that her constituents have become "the unwilling victims" of the Postal Service's unsuccessful attempts to streamline, and improve upon its services.

"The Postal Service has been totally unable to deliver on or achieve any of these standards that they set out to accomplish," she said.

Referring to the off-island sorting process, the delegate listed numerous instances of poor service brought about by policies such as having all Virgin Islands mail sent to Puerto Rico for sorting even if it is going to an address on the same island. While processing the mail through one big machine may make "good business sense, it just does not work well enough to benefit the Virgin Islands,” said Christensen.

The Virgin Islanders are not getting the service that they pay for even when using Express or Priority mail. She also emphasized that the business community continues to incur financial losses. She asked for a quick response as services that used to be excellent or better in the Virgin Islands have obviously deteriorated.

The USPS web site issued a statement in 2005 touting the opening of a new USPS and U.S. Customs Border Protection international mail branch in Puerto Rico. The following statement was posted by the USPS. “The joint venture will speed mail processing among Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, U.S. Virgin Islands, British Virgin Islands, and other Caribbean countries.”

Christensen toured the San Juan Puerto Rica location to try to ascertain what was actually happening to USVI mail once it arrived on site for sorting. Due to the numerous complaints still being received by her office, the elected official recently conducted a series of town hall meetings concerning US Postal Service in the US Virgin Islands.

For instance, customers who pay for three-day, priority shipping often wait a minimum of five to seven days to receive the item. Subscribers to monthly publications have reported the arrival of at least two monthly issues of the same publication on the same date.

Individuals who await medical supplies from the mainland are especially concerned about the problem. The USPS web site has no record of USVI Post Office locations when USVI zip codes are entered.