Do-it-Yourself Post Office Proves Popular
Do-it-yourself Post Office Proves Popular
June 14, 2008 - Paraphrased Article from Indianapolis Star
By: Cathy Kighlinger
Nancy VanMeter is just the type of person U.S. Postal Service officials hope to attract to their new self-service facility in Fishers.
VanMeter likes the convenience of the small brick postal building inside the Saxony development, and she has little trouble using its automated mailing gadgets—officially called Automated Postal Centers.
“It’s open 24 hours. I’ll be back because I end up doing all kinds of little odds and ends at all times of the day,” she said this week, after buying a book of stamps at the facility. She also weighed a package and purchase postage for it.
The self-service facility is the first of its kind in the state, and one of a few in the United States, say postal officials.
It opened in April, but postal officials are holding a grand opening event from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. today. Patrons will be able to tour the mini post office, rent post office boxes—and give passport applications to the postal officials, something that won’t be a regular service of the facility.
Fishers got the new facility because its postal customers are putting to good use the three Automated Postal Centers located in the main post office, near Town Hall on 116th Street, said Kim Yates, spokeswoman for the U.S. Postal Service. The first automated center was installed in August 2004, and two others were added in July 2007, she said.
“The APCs in Fishers are among the top performers in the state of Indiana,” Yates said. “We knew it would be an ideal location to place and innovative facility of this type.”
The new self-service mini post office has two Automated Postal Centers, which accepts major credit and debit cards. They can conduct 80 percent of transactions available at Post Office retail counters, including weigh and ship domestic packages via Express Mail, Priority Mail or Parcel Post; deposit First-Class Mail; buy stamps; and look up ZIP Codes. They also can print shipping labels and purchase delivery confirmation, certified mail return receipts and insurance for packages.
Fishers Town Council President Scott Faultless welcomes a new postal facility that can handle increased demand for services. The growing town needs a growing postal service, he said.
When officials measure the use of the new facility and the use of the main Post Office, they will have to give serious consideration to another expansion, Faultless said.
