Postal Service struggles with deliveries
Empty mailboxes, missing gifts, lagging medication deliveries, overdue rent payments — these are some of the consequences of a struggling United States Postal Service.
Agency officials acknowledge the service is experiencing delivery delays, and say there are several factors contributing to the problems.
In a recent press release, the agency cited an unprecedented volume of holiday packages, a rising number of coronavirus cases in its workforce and capacity challenges with airlifts and trucking for moving mail.
“The Postal Service leadership team, the unions and management associations are all working in close collaboration to address issues and concerns as they arise as we focus on delivering the holidays for the nation,” the agency said in the release.
The agency added that it has hired about 100,000 holiday staffers, expanded delivery and retail hours, leased more vehicles and expanded technology to enhance package tracking as part of an effort to address the issues.
Further complicating package deliveries, T he Washington Post reported that private carriers like UPS and FedEx have stopped taking deliveries from some retailers. This has resulted in the overflow going to the USPS, with even more pileup for the agency and more delays for customers.
The agency is receiving as many as 6 million packages a day since Fe
dEx and UPS enacted restrictions on large-volume retail shippers in early De
cember, according to estimates from the industry tracking firm ShipMatrix.
For the week of Dec. 6, FedEx delivered 93.9% of its parcels on time, UPS at
96.1% and USPS at 87.5%. This means over 3.5 million parcels now are experiencing a delay of one or more days in the coming days due to a decline in their performance compared to the previous twoweek period.
Calls to the Mohnton Post Office following up on a weekend complaint about not receiving mail by a Reading Eagle reader who declined to give his name were met with a busy signal.
But a call to the Postal Service customer hotline did yield a response. After being prompted to enter a ZIP code and how many days of delivery service has been delayed, this recorded prompt played:
“Due to the COVID-19 virus, employees’ availability has impacted some delivery operations. The Postal Service is mindful of the fact that customers are in need of a timely delivery of mail — particularly mail containing medications, merchandise packages and first class mail.
“We continue to monitor daily performance to ensure that mail delivery is returned to normal as soon as possible. Your local post office is doing everything it can to review normal delivery with limited staff. Please be advised that our customer service representatives have no additional information pertaining to the operation at your local post office.
“To share information with your local post office regarding delivery delay, we have two options for creating a case. If you’re calling from a smar tphone, I can send you a text link to create your case on USPS.com or I can give you complete instructions for using your computer to submit your case on USPS.com.”