Delivery delays affect businesses

One of Postal Service’s key customer segments is small businesses.

For small businesses reliant on shipping, delayed mail delivery stemming from recent changes at the U.S. Postal Service has been a nightmare.

Payment checks to vendors never arrive, forcing business owners to incur extra costs to cancel checks and wire funds instead. Custom yard signs don’t get to customers in time for special events, leading to refunds.

And some business owners fear delayed shipments could harm their standing with customers.

.One of the Postal Service’s key customer segments is small businesses, according to a 2013 audit report on small business growth by the USPS Office of Inspector General.

Microbusinesses, which have fewer than 10 employees, are particularly reliant on the Postal Service. In a recent survey, a majority of respondents said they used it more frequently than other carriers.

Los Angeles-based digital sign printer CR&A Custom Inc. has leaned heavily on its e-commerce business since the pandemic effectively shut down its main business of making signs and banners for special events. The company now ships yard signs for graduations, birthdays and even funerals.

But with the shipping delays, those signs don’t always arrive when they’re supposed to. And when that has happened, CR&A

Custom has had to reimburse the customer and ship a replacement sign via another delivery service, which slashes profit, said Carmen Rad, the company’s president. So far, that has cost the company about $4,900.

The delivery delays also have affected the company’s payments to vendors, forcing CR&A Custom to pay additional fees to cancel the check and wire money instead.

The Postal Service said in a statement that its employees in the Greater Los Angeles area were trying to handle the increased volume of mail and that it was in the process of hiring additional temporary workers to keep up with demand.

Switching over to a private courier service such as FedEx or UPS isn’t always possible for companies that rely on low-cost shipping options.

“When you do try to do workarounds, obviously that’s not going to be the most cost-effective,” said Lilly Rocha, executive director of the Los Angeles Latino Chamber of Commerce, who said she has heard from about 20 people in the group about shipping delays.