UA News

Espizona keeps machines whirring to address, stuff and seal campus bulk mailings.

Name
Olga Espinoza

Position
Printing and Reproduction Services Specialist, University Postal Services – Bulk Mail 

Number of years at the UA
25

Favorite part of working at the UA
"I like my job. It's a service, and I enjoying working with people, meeting people."

 

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It takes mere seconds for a letter to be snatched into a machine, folded neatly and stuffed into an envelope. In another instant, it zips through a second machine to be labeled with the correct address before riding down a conveyer belt for sorting.  

In a warehouse off the beaten path, near 22nd Street and Cherry Avenue, these machines hum away, processing hundreds, even thousands, of University of Arizona bulk mailings. Olga Espinoza, a 25-year employee of the UA, is often at the helm, helping to ensure that mail is properly addressed, prepared and sorted before it makes its way to the post office.  

Espinoza recently took a break from addressing, stuffing, sorting and sealing to talk with Lo Que Pasa about her work in University Postal Services' bulk mail division, a clearinghouse for many campus departments' mailings of 200 pieces or more.

Who are your customers?
Our customers are the different departments. We work with all the departments that have mailings. ... We do a lot for Eller (College of Management) and (the College of) Pharmacy and (the College of) Medicine. The bigger jobs are those departments.

What types of materials are you sending?
We do whatever they want to send. We do postcards, we do booklets, we do fliers, we do catalogs, envelopes, invites; we do everything, every piece of material that they need mailed.

What constitutes bulk mail?
Two hundred pieces or more.

What machines do you operate?
I run the Rena (the machine that prints addresses on pieces of mail). I also operate a stuffer/sealing machine, the tabber, which tabs the pieces if needed. If we have a brochure or a booklet that needs tabbing for postal regulations, we put it through the machine (and) depending on how thick or thin it gets two or one or three tabs – it's the little stickers that clip them (folded pieces of mail) together (so they stay closed). ... I also help Postal Services when they're short-handed; I'll do routes for them, deliver the campus mail out to the UA.

How many people work on a machine at one time?
Depending on the job – how big, how small – usually it's two, because one will be the operator and then like with the Rena ... (pieces of mail) will come off of a conveyer (after the machine prints an address on them), so a person has to be over there collecting the mail and putting it wherever it needs to go.

How long does it take to process a job?
If we're not too busy, it's in and out. Just the other day we did (a job for) Eller; that one was 37,000 (pieces). ... It was a (Eller) Progress Magazine; it goes throughout the United States. ... It took us maybe four days.

How much mail usually comes in on a given day?
If it's really busy, I think maybe 30 (thousand) to 40,000 for big jobs like that Eller job, but if we have little jobs, I would say maybe 3-, 4,000.

Do you have notice when big orders are coming?
Sometimes they just show up, but most of the time we are notified that they're coming, so we prepare – get our stock trays, sacks, (mail transportation) cages, whatever's going to be needed for that (job).

How many pieces can go through the machines at a time?
It depends on the piece. There's a lot of pieces that run really good; there's pieces that you just struggle with. ... The thinner it is, the harder it is to run. If it's newspaper, it (the machine) has wheels that'll want to grab the bottom; it tears your piece up. ... You've got to work with it, work your pressure between the wheels, to get it to feed.

What happens to the mail after you've processed a job?
We prepare it, and it goes to the U.S. post office right here on Cherry. We deliver it to the post office in a van. If we have big jobs, like the Eller (job), they'll use a big truck because they have to put it (the mail) in big metal cages (to transport it).

What's the most challenging part of your job?
To satisfy a customer, really. You really want to do a good job, make sure everything goes OK, if you have a problem correct it. Our first priority is the customer.

How did you come to work at the UA?
I got into this job 25 years ago with my sister. My sister was working for Printing and Reproduction, and at that time I was fresh out of high school. I was 17 years old. ... I started in bindery, then I went into the print shop, started running presses, and then one day there was an opening in bulk mail and I applied for it and I've been with bulk mail since.

Since you started here, have you seen a decline in people mailing things out because of e-mail and the Internet?
A lot of stuff has gone online. Maybe it's (because of) the budget. There has been a decline in work, but we're here and hopefully customers will bring their jobs here. ... I like (it) better to get a piece of paper. A lot of people like that – to have it in their hand and look at it.