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Kokua Line June Watanabe |
Tight security slows
delivery of Guam’s mailQuestion: Can you please find out what's going on at the post office? I sent several large boxes to Guam two weeks ago, and they still haven't been delivered. My friend who works at the main post office said it may be going by boat or surface mail if there weren't customs forms on them. Why does it need customs forms? Guam is not a foreign country. I never used customs forms before. I paid big money to send the boxes by Priority Mail. I should be getting a refund if it didn't go by air.
Answer: Since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, it's not business as usual for many facets of American life. One of them is mail delivery.
"Mail has come under a lot of scrutiny because of the fear that someone could mail something that could jeopardize the safety not only of postal employees, but also the flying public," explained Lynne Moore, manager of consumer affairs for the U.S. Postal Service in Hawaii.
The heightened security requirements are by order of the Transportation Security Administration, she said.
For mail going to Guam specifically, Priority Mail of 16 ounces or more "cannot fly on commercial passenger aircraft unless it is associated with a traceable document, such as Express Mail, Registered Mail, APO/FPO or international mail, because international mail has customs forms," she said.
In January, to clarify the security issue "so we could handle the mail more expeditiously," the postal service came out with a regulation that said, effective immediately, customers had to affix a customs form on all mail, 16 ounces or more, addressed to Guam.
"If a customer refuses or does not complete and sign these forms, the postal service will send the mail piece by ocean surface transportation," Moore said.
She didn't want to speculate on what happened in your case, but said if the transaction were made across the counter, "we would say that you need a customs declaration." She apologized if that didn't happen.
Without the declaration, the postal service will attempt to put the mail on a cargo (nonpassenger) flight, if it all possible, Moore said. But if it is unable to do that for whatever reason, the mail may end up on a boat, in which it would take four or more weeks for delivery, she said.
If you have all your receipts and information/documentation on when the boxes were sent/delivered, she said you could go to any post office and ask for a refund of the difference in cost between surface and priority mail.
Moore noted that requiring the customs declaration "is not meeting, necessarily, postal requirements," but rather TSA requirements. "If we don't comply, we can't fly mail -- they won't let us put mail on flights."
Mahalo
To Paul. I had a flat tire while driving on the freeway. I heard of stories about no one stopping to give help. But as I was walking toward the emergency call box, a gentleman pulled over. Mahalo, Paul, for helping a woman in distress. -- Kris Yoakum
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