USPS Delivers for Hacienda Companies

By Hacienda Network Staff Writer

"Neither Rain, Nor Sleet, Nor Dead of Night." That may be the mythical credo of mail carriers, however, while Hacienda may get some rain and - once in a blue moon - even some sleet, the importance of timely mail delivery is always critical. In response to requests to meet specific business needs, the local Post Office has made great strides in the past year to improve service in many ways. The results have all been due to the efforts of the local mail carriers, and the guidance of Pleasanton Postmaster Gurjant Khosa and an active group of business people and residents.

"When I first came here, I had a meeting with Hacienda representatives and other community leaders, which brought a couple of problems to light," Khosa says. "What I found out was that our carriers were starting out too late for the business customers - especially at Hacienda. So, I changed their starting time to 7:00 in the morning, which speeded up the delivery process. We have also been providing continuing education to our employees on a weekly basis about how important it is to increase our customer service. I think they basically lacked the leadership here before. I've been here a year but before I took this job, Pleasanton didn't have a permanent postmaster for about five years. Basically, the carriers and other staff didn't get the direction they needed."

The Pleasanton Post Office is striving to help businesses get to work as early as possible on projects that rely on mail delivery. "Our efforts have been to educate the local USPS employees about how important and critical it is for a business customer to receive mail by 12:00 pm at the latest every day. This allows business customers to get their mail in house and take care of transactions with their banks, payroll departments, their customers," Khosa says.

The results have been impressive. A recent study showed that most mail delivered from the park to local destinations was en route in just one day - and that delivery times had improved over service seen in the last three years. "I haven't had any complaints from Hacienda at all since I've been here," Khosa says. "When I started here, I would go out and visit five or six customers a week to promote our products and ask them if they were happy with their service. The customers are letting me know if they need help or not."

To contact the Pleasanton Post Office with comments, questions about service, or complaints call Gurjant Khosa at (925) 846-3204. To get more details on services offered by the Post Office, visit www.usps.com.

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