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Show Speed-up in Mail Service Promised by Post Office I weeping improvements pro-. pro-. ' next-day first-class let-vld let-vld fervice for most of the tefI of the state of Utah announced today by Post-aster Post-aster General Arthur E. Sum- merfield. The announcement was made in a release issued m Salt Lake City by W D Brewer, Denver Regional Postal Post-al Operations Director. Mr. Summerfield states that postal patrons in the area are now assured that barring occasional oc-casional human error in distribution, distri-bution, first-class letters mailed mail-ed by 5:00 p.m., or, in a few smaller offices before the last dispatch, will be delivered to their., destination., within the area on the first delivery trips of the following business day. The Utah mail improvement project is a part of a nationwide nation-wide all-out effort to improve the postal service, Mr. Summerfield Sum-merfield pointed out. Thirty-six major United States cities together to-gether with various sized areas surrounding them have already inaugurated similar programs, and approximately fifty additional addi-tional ones are in the planning stage. However, the Utah project pro-ject which includes more than 75,000 of the state's 84,916 sq. miles is the largest area yet to be included in a single plan, according to Mr. Summerfield. Except for Daggett and Rich, all or part of the state's twenty-nine counties are included in the Utah mail improvement plan; and the total area is greater than that served by entire postal systems in many foreign countries. The great distances involved (in some in- stances more than 400 road miles from post office to post office) require precise timing in collection, dispatch, and transportation schedules. Mr. Summerfield called the project the "greatest single improvement in mail service for Utah in more than a generation." gener-ation." The program for better first-class mail service has been in test operation since June 8. During this "shakedown" period, per-iod, results have exceeded expectations. ex-pectations. The entire area encompassed by the plan contains 240 Utah post offices or other postal installations. in-stallations. That figure includes all 16 offices of the first class; all 47 of the second class; 71 third class; 106 fourth class. In addition 28 branches and stations are served. The total pieces of letter mail handled on an average day by these post offices exceeds one million. mil-lion. Distribution centers have been established at Ogden, Provo, Richfield, Price, Cedar City, and Brigham City, with Salt Lake City serving as the central concentration point. These are cities from which principal mail routes emanate. Mail from offices on star routes rout-es which enter these post offices of-fices is readily available for transfer to other distribution points, the concentration center cen-ter or railroad post offices. "The improvement of first-class first-class letter mail service in Utan will be reflected in better bet-ter service all over America. Since a large portion of U. S. mail originates or terminates in cities like Salt Lake, strategically stra-tegically located to serve large areas, a metropolitan plan in operation here together with those already established and others to be organized in the near future are major steps forward in the Post Office De-partnent's De-partnent's goal of next-day delivery of a letter between any two major points in the United States," Mr. Summer-field Summer-field concluded. |