Winter deluge highlights mail woes
Complaints about delays come amid USPS losses
The recent series of deadly storms across the country slowed mail deliveries to a crawl, frustrating people and businesses.
It’s the latest havoc befalling the U.S. Postal Service as lawmakers from Washington state to Texas express concerns about chronic mail delays.
The mounting grievances come as the Postal Service reported a net income loss of $6.5 billion in fiscal year 2023. Postal Service spokesperson Jim McKean attributed the drop to inflation and civil service retirement costs.
Total mail and package volume dropped by about 9% in one year, according to the Postal Service’s 2023 report to Congress.
Though it is a government agency, the Postal Service is generally selffunded and hasn’t collected enough revenues to cover its expenses and debt for more than 15 years.
The Postal Service announced a 10year plan in 2021 to get its debt-ridden finances turned around. It plans to build back its financial viability through slower delivery, price hikes and process optimization.
The service maintains it generally delivers promptly, noting the average delivery takes less than three days. However, McKean said deliveries may continue to be affected through January as storms persist in some regions.
The service has issued alerts about delays and reminded residents in several states to clear snow and ice from sidewalks and around mailboxes.
The Postal Service isn’t the only delivery service having problems: FedEx shipments were halted in hundreds of towns across six states due to the storms, the company said last week.
While problems are reported in many places, the outcry from Houston has been particularly loud
Shannon Wilpitz, co-founder of Upper Room Candle Co., said she has “completely lost faith” in the Postal Service after a month of late deliveries.
About 10 packages have been delayed for over a week, Wilpitz said. The order for one customer in metro Houston traveled to Dallas, Houston and out of state to Atlanta, according to the online tracker. Wilpitz said she dropped off the order as Priority Mail on Jan. 9 and it hadn’t arrived two weeks later.
Wilpitz said several of the delayed orders came from first-time customers as her business was growing.
“It’s those people I’m concerned about,” she said. “They don’t know if that’s just the way we do business.”
Wilpitz said she switched to UPS this past week and doesn’t foresee going back.
“You don’t want to be burning your bridges,” she said. “Because we’re so small, every single customer matters.”
U.S. Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, said he has received nearly 100 calls from people dismayed about Postal Service delays. He told USA TODAY the cases he has seen largely boil down to one office: the Missouri City center roughly 20 miles southwest of Houston.
In one case, a resident’s $1,600 wedding dress went missing. It was never found, Green said, and the woman had to buy another. “I am not going to contend that this was stolen, but I do think it’s an unusual circumstance,” he said.
Multiple other packages have seemed to arrive at the Missouri City office, according to online tracking updates, but then “somehow get lost in ways that are inexplicable,” he said.
Green said he is seeking a tour of the facility and has urged the Postal Service to open a customer service line for the Missouri City branch. “The Postal Service can’t be a closed society. It needs to have transparency,” he said.
And he has one concern possibly even more pressing than a wedding dress: Green said he hopes to get the delivery problems resolved before primary elections in March – to prevent problems with mail-in ballots.
“It would be a shame for the election to be thrown into some sort of questionable circumstances because the Postal Service did not deliver mail timely and appropriately,” Green said.
He added that he still supported the Postal Service, blaming the recent problems on policy and administration.
McKean told USA TODAY the Postal Service had added staff and implemented new processes to address “root causes of sporadic issues” for mail delivery in Houston.
“We want customers to know that we continue the expansion of our operations in the Houston area because of increased volume and we are adding additional capacity with a new facility to improve service,” McKean said.
He added that Houston was also affected by the recent storms. McKean apologized and said customers “should already see improvements in delivery as we work though these issues.”
Lawmakers around the country have been getting an earful from constituents – and forwarding the complaints.
U.S. Reps. Suzan DelBene and Rick Larsen, both D-Wash., sent a letter to Postmaster General Louis DeJoy about “persistent mail delays” during the holiday season, DelBene said Jan. 13. It followed a July letter complaining about chronic delays, she added.
Minnesota senators introduced legislation last month aimed at improving Postal Service delivery tracking and accountability.
Rep. Abigail Spanberger, D-Va., said in December she received more than 1,300 complaints about mail delays. Virginia officials asked the Postal Service to hold a town hall to address concerns about chronic delays and mail theft, WTVR-TV reported. The request was denied.