Tuesday November 30 2:05 PM ET Postal Service Activates 'War Room' By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - Like generals in a war room directing a continent-spanning campaign, Postal Service managers are opening their headquarters command center to handle the crush of holiday mail.

Between Thanksgiving and Christmas, the agency expects to handle 20 billion pieces of mail, postal vice president Nicholas Barranca said Tuesday. The peak day is expected to be Dec. 13.

``We recognize that our customers depend on us now more than ever to provide the best holiday mailing season ever,'' Barranca said. ``Operations managers are paying special attention to equipment needs for large mailings and to make in-home delivery dates for customer mailings.''

He spoke in the agency's command center, where radar and satellite images glow on video displays, alerting managers to problem weather, as colored lights track the movement of cargo planes carrying cards and parcels.

The center and 11 regional command centers around the country will operate 24 hours a day seven days a week, Barranca said.

He said the post office is hiring 40,000 temporary workers and has leased an additional 100 cargo planes to move mail and added tons of other equipment for the holiday crush.

And this year that crush may be complicated by people sending bill payments and other business materials out as the end of the year approaches - using old-fashioned paper mail rather than trusting e-mail and its potential Y2K problems.

Barranca said that after Christmas the command center will reopen Dec. 28 and remain in full-time operation until Jan. 4 to handle any problems associated with the arrival of the year 2000.

``We have contingency plans available to move the mail,'' he said.

Managers in the headquarters command center and regional centers can shift planes and trucks to meet extra need, reroute around bad weather and cope with problems at individual airports around the country.

The agency will route its planes through three hubs, in Ontario, Calif., and Blytheville, Ark., and near Indianapolis, he said.

Officials urge people to help the mail move smoothly by using complete addresses, including ZIP codes and apartment numbers and a return address. People who don't know the ZIP code can get it by calling the post office or from the agency's Internet site at www.usps.gov.

But Barranca urged people not to guess at a ZIP code. It's better not to use a ZIP code than to use a wrong one, he said.

His other suggestions for helping speed the flow of mail included printing the address, putting an address card inside parcels and sealing parcels with filament tape - never string. http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/19991130/us/mail_war_room_1.html

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-- LOON (blooney10@aol.com), November 30, 1999

Answers

I don't believe this has much to do with Y2K as the Christmas mail peak will be history well before 2000. I did hear the Post Office hired Cliff Claven from the old Cheers show to run their "War Room".

-- Richard Greene (Rgreene2@ford.com), November 30, 1999.