WINDOW OF OPPORTUNITY

Bangor residents may have been disappointed to read that the city’s proposed new post office would not include a drive-through window, a convenient option at the post office across the river in Brewer. While a drive-through wasn’t included in the original plan for the Bangor building, it has not been ruled out.

At a public meeting to discuss the new facility last week, acting Bangor Post master Michael Mitchell said a drive-through wasn’t part of the plan here or anywhere else. That is because the postal service now uses standardized construction plans for all its new buildings nationwide. None of those plans include drive-through windows. The Brewer post office was built before the postal service switched to standardized construction plans.

After a call to its Portland office, a spokesman, Tom Rizzo, said the postal service would consult with the project’s architects and the district’s operations personnel to see whether a drive-through window is feasible.

Expect to hear that it will add significantly to the cost of building and operating the facility. Also expect to hear that the postal service is a business, not a taxpayer-funded entity, and can’t take on extra expenses.

In addition to adding to the cost, a drive-through window would require more traffic flow planning and perhaps additional permitting and zoning work. These may be small expenses if customers readily use the window.

Further, Mr. Rizzo said that drive-through windows aren’t used as much as people think and that it is difficult to service both a walk-in counter and a drive-through window. “It is not supported from a business sense,” he said.

Odd, then, that drive-throughs at other businesses are on the rise. Banks, coffee shops and restaurants long ago figured out how to manage both a drive-through and walk-in customers. In fact, many traditional sit-down restaurants are now adding drive-up spaces to attract more customers. Pharmacies have also added drive-throughs, presumably to better serve their customers.

At a time when the postal service says it is finding it difficult to compete with overnight delivery services and the increasing use of electronic communications, improving customer services seems a logical place to seek improvements.

Adding a drive-through to the Bangor post office could be one small step in that direction.