USPS Struggles to Deliver Packages on Time

[wing2000]

If you are waiting on Christmas deliveries from the USPS, you may be out of luck. During the month of December, four of my USPS inbound shipments took an average of 2+ weeks to arrive (Priority, First Class mail).

Competing crises are slamming the U.S. Postal Service just days before Christmas, imperiling the delivery of millions of packages, as the agency contends with spiking coronavirus cases in its workforce, unprecedented volumes of e-commerce orders and the continuing fallout from a hobbled cost-cutting program launched by the postmaster general.

Nearly 19,000 of the agency’s 644,000 workers have called in sick or are isolating because of the virus, according to the American Postal Workers Union. Meanwhile, packages have stacked up inside some postal facilities, leading employees to push them aside to create narrow walkways on shop floors.

And it doesn't help when private delivery firms shut down shipping from major retailers (USPS doesn't have that option):

The agency is receiving as many as 6 million packages a day since FedEx and UPS enacted restrictions on large-volume retail shippers in early December, according to industry tracking firm ShipMatrix.


https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/12/21/usps-delays-christmas/

 

[d taylor]

That is true, i sent in my insurance (motor vehicles) payment Nov 22 and received a letter form the insurance company Dec 19 stating they had not received my payment.

I called the bank yesterday (21st) and they said the check cleared friday the 18th.

So almost a month to get the payment to the insurance comapny

 

[bekkilyn]

I really hope DeJoy is booted from the Biden administration. If it wasn't for his "efforts" to help Trump suppress mail-in votes and obstruct democracy, we very likely wouldn't be having these issues to the severe extent we're having them now.

 

[iluvatar5150]

Seems like maybe there was a missed opportunity with all of those unemployed people out there...

 

[Hans Blaster]

I really hope DeJoy is booted from the Biden administration. If it wasn't for his "efforts" to help Trump suppress mail-in votes and obstruct democracy, we very likely wouldn't be having these issues to the severe extent we're having them now.

Technically, the Postmaster General is not part of the administration. (At least not since 1971 when the Department of the Post Office became the USPS.) The PMG is hired and fired by the USPS Board of Governors. They *are* appointed by the President. (I assume to fixed terms.) I don't know if there are vacancies on the board. I see a reasonable likelihood that postal reform could be on the agenda in the next congress.