Los Banos Rotary Club History
Post Office Is Big Business

Declaring that in every community in this country the post office serves as an accurate barometer of community business, the local postmaster, Rocco V. Pernetti, told members of the Rotary Club Tuesday noon of last week that business in Los Banos is good and getting better.

In the ten year period from 1943 to 1953, Pernetti said, local postal receipts—stamps, parcel post and other mailings—have increased from a total of $31,615 in 1943 to over $66,000 in 1953. Receipts for 1954 will establish a new record here, possibly by $2,500. Receipts for the months of September were over $7,000, highest monthly total on record except the months of December in 1951, 1952 and 1953.

Nationally, Pernetti said, the post office department is the country's largest single business, with a half million employees, and receipts of more than $21 billion a year. That is two times more than total receipts for General Motors Corp, and four times more than total receipt of the telephone companies. The country's 40,000 post offices sell more than 23 billion stamps a year—which, placed side by side, would reach 14 times around the world.

Declaring that the post office is in almost daily contact with almost every person in the United States, Pernetti demonstrated the extent of the business by the suggestion that each individual multiply the amount of mail he receives each day by 165 million—which would be quite a sizable pile of paper.
Stating that the post office department is continually endeavoring to improve service to the public and at the same time effect operating economies, Pernetti pointed out that the department has in the past two years, decreased the operating deficit from $700 million to $300 million a year.

As an example he cited the new regulations slashing former red tape to permit purchasing of supplies on regional or district basic. For instance, mail box posts which formerly were all manufactured by a Cleveland concern at $3.00 each, required $15 freight charges for delivery to the west coast. Now they are purchased on the coast for the same price with delivery charges reduced from $15 to $3.00.

Increased emphasis is being put on faster deliveries and improved customer service, Pernetti said, with the results that mail dispatches are made at the latest moment in the day and rushed through the night to delivery points for distribution the following morning.

Here, he said, outgoing mail received before 6 p. m. is sent by Highway truck to Fresno, from where San Francisco and bay area mail is routed north by truck, arriving in time for first delivery the next day. Under the new Air lift plan, regular first class mail between Los Angeles and Seattle is handled by airplane, and a 3 cent letter mailed here at 6 p. m. is delivered in Seattle Wash., the following morning. This new plan is providing quite successful and no doubt will be adopted on a permanent basis.

In an effort to provide better service here through the holiday period, Pernetti said all regular employees are working on an over time basis when necessary, and all incoming and outgoing mail will be handled on schedule.

December 17, 1954

---