So you all probably recall a few months ago when the US Postal Service was in the news because there was some drama with the Postmaster General, mail-in ballots, and removal of modern sorting equipment in many central post offices around the country. As a result, mail delivery times became unreliable and there were many delays. However, it seems like that got sorted out not too much later.
Is it happening again? I’ve got two things that have been sent via 1st Class USPS, and we’re going on one week for one of them, and two for the other. My wife’s got a delivery that’s in USPS limbo as well.
Is this just localized bad luck, or is the USPS suffering some sort of systemic issues again?
The Postmaster General who ordered the actions that slowed the mail down is still there. He’ll probably be replaced when the new president comes in, but it may take some time to undo the damage done. That’s about all I can say without getting political.
That, and the normal holiday surge of mail and packages probably isn’t helping, either. I’m sure there was already a backlog and now they’re getting more.
No he won’t. The Postmaster General is appointed by the USPS Board of Governors, all of whom were appointed by Trump. The Senate refused/failed to confirm any of Obama’s nominees for the board before he left office, so the entire board of governors was vacant when Trump took office.
I recently had a package returned to sender due to an “unknown address.” The shipper sent me a photo of the package and the address is the same as on every other piece of mail I’ve received. It took the USPS something like 40 days to “give up” and send the package back.
I have not had any problems with any packages or envelopes in the last… 12 months at least, and I order and ship trading cards on a very regular basis. (Since we’re offering up anecdotal evidence.)
Starting in about midsummer, everything went to hell around here. What used to be next-day (letters to Houston or Austin) became 2-3 day letters, and incoming parcels quit being 2-5 days, and have gone to being much more variable.
One thing has stayed constant though; the USPS’ package tracking is just as abysmal as ever. More often than not, the package shows “Label created” until after it’s delivered.
Around here (New York City), apparently the USPS was hit pretty hard by COVID. I remember talking to the letter carrier who works a route locally, and she said that they had more than 20% of the workforce out sick at the main post office for the area.