We have one unsupported claim that in one tiny rural PO someone told them to give Amazon priority. Sure the Postmaster could have made a wrong call- it happens. Big deal
This does not equate with Amazon actually getting that throughout the other 31,131 Post offices out there.
That is a factually untrue statement.
Stranger
Not having delivery to your street address isn’t just a rural thing. I’m not sure just why, in some jurisdictions, everyone has to come pick up their mail from a PO Box.
In North Beach, MD, not too far from where I live, you won’t see mailboxes on the curbs. Everyone picks up their mail from the local P.O. In Chesapeake Beach, right next door, everyone gets mail delivered to their home.
In Anna Maria, FL, which occupies the northern ~1/3 of Anna Maria Island, there are also no mailboxes next to the street; again, everyone goes to the P.O. to get their mail. (We have frequently vacationed there.) In Holmes Beach, FL, which occupies the middle third of the island, everyone gets home delivery.
In neither case does there seem to be any rhyme or reason to why one gets home delivery and the other picks up their mail at the P.O. But neither area is rural by any stretch of the imagination.
You could say this part about my area. I have a mailbox and contract mail carriers who pick up the mail daily a couple of towns over. My BFF, who actually lives in the town with the Post Office and real postal employees, has to pick her mail up at the P.O because nobody in that town gets home delivery.
So, ordinarily they’ll come out to your house and deliver it for free. If you want to come to the post office and pick it up yourself, well you have to pay for that. Makes sense, I’m sure.
Oh, my goodness, it is even better than that! Folks in my little town are not allowed to pay for a P.O. box close because they are reserved for the residents of the town the post office is in. If we want a P.O. box, we have to drive 40 miles to the closest UPS store and pay for one there.
It all makes perfect sense if you start drinking first thing in the morning.
A few years after I moved to my current residence they allowed me to move the mailbox from the street to the front porch because I was no longer a rural route. It saved me the 200’ round trip. I’m guessing the mailman wasn’t as enthusiastic.
Well, yes, because it didnt really happen at all-
Postal Service spokesperson David Partenheimer said the agency is unaware of any significant delivery issues in Bemidji. “Like any prudent business, we do not publicly discuss specifics of our business relationships,” he said.
Partenheimer defended the post office’s record in an email, while conceding “much work remains to be done.” He said the post office’s aim is “to deliver mail and packages together in an integrated network.” After this story was published, he added that the agency “does not prioritize the delivery of packages from Amazon or other customers.”
However, there is this claim-
Since early November, Bemidji has been bombarded by a sudden onslaught of Amazon packages — and local postal workers say they have been ordered to deliver those packages first.
One tiny rural PO, and the claim is not only unsupported but denied officially.
So, you have your cite, go ahead dude and quote where other POs claims they were ordered to prioritize Amazon packages.
Now yes,other POs said they were being overwhelmed by Amazon packages. But one, and only one made that unsupported and denied claim.
I used to get Amazon stuff delivered to my work physical address (I don’t deliver to my home). But whoever was delivering this figured out our work PO Box and instead of taking it the my actual office physical address, would just drop it off at the work PO Box.
Pissed me and others off. That made for the person picking up work mail also picking up and delivering personal mail.
I just got a UPS box. Solved that.
One thing not mentioned, the Amazon parcel deliveries are also made on Sundays (as well as most of the federal holidays) historically a guaranteed day off for the post office carriers. No longer. They don’t deliver regular mail for this operation, strictly Amazon; and they don’t need the whole crew, but it is not a particularly popular assignment. Some people like overtime, but with short staffing and excessive overtime most people want the time off.
Management does recognize they need to recapture the parcel delivery business, as first class mail volume has cratered to only a fraction of what it once was in just the last few years, and it was already down dramatically.
I just delivered it today. For me, It’s an easier day than the regular mail route.
It’s routinely carried out by newbies (like me) who aren’t regular carriers yet. Regular carriers don’t do it — the exception is during this time of year when the volume is heavier. In this case, regular carriers get paid time and a half and is strictly on a volunteer basis.
The above applies to city carriers. Rural carriers are a whole different animal.