You’ve got mail, but you’re going to have to wait a while longer to get it delivered
“I’ve been standing here waiting, Mr. Postman. So patiently, for just a card or just a letter.”
That’s how the old Motown golden oldie went. But it won’t help to sing “Please, Mr. Postman” to speed up your mail deliveries.
It’s not your postal carrier’s fault. Changes nationwide with the U.S. Postal Service have led to delays in getting your cards, letters and deliveries.
In Broward County, recent changes to operations at the nation’s top level “have caused absolute confusion and turmoil,” said Jeff Riddell, American Postal Workers Union of Florida Broward County president.
“Today in Fort Lauderdale trucks arrived late, causing massive amounts of parcels to be delayed. Clerks take great pride in getting these parcels out to carriers, so our customer needs can be met. Yet we presently are stymied,” Riddell said on Thursday.
He also said in an email that sorters are just “sitting there, not operational” as they are mined for spare parts.
In Miami-Dade, delays have been running about two to three days, American Postal Workers Union Miami area president Wanda Harris told WPLG-Local 10.
In Southwest Florida, delays are “skyrocketing” Fort Myers’ Postal Union President Sam Wood told Fox 4.
“Back in April, there was a little over 150,000 pieces of delayed mail for that month. It went up to 400,000 pieces of delayed mail in May, and then in June, it went up to 700,000 pieces of delayed mail. And then July, which I was very shocked, it went to 5.7 million,” Wood told Fox 4.
“I’ve never seen anything like this, ever, since I’ve been working for the post office over 29 years,” he added
Harris told WPLG the delays are because Louis DeJoy, the new postmaster general, “said he wants to cut costs.”
The Associated Press recently obtained memos showing that Postal Service leadership has pushed to eliminate overtime and curtail late delivery trips needed to ensure mail is delivered on time.
Debra J. Fetterly, a spokeswoman for the USPS in Fort Lauderdale, directed media requests for comment to the postmaster general’s statement issued on Tuesday.
In a statement on the USPS website, DeJoy said: “I came to the Postal Service to make changes to secure the success of this organization and its long-term sustainability. I believe significant reforms are essential to that objective, and work toward those reforms will commence after the election.
“In the meantime, there are some longstanding operational initiatives — efforts that predate my arrival at the Postal Service — that have been raised as areas of concern as the nation prepares to hold an election in the midst of a devastating pandemic,” DeJoy continued. “To avoid even the appearance of any impact on election mail, I am suspending these initiatives until after the election is concluded.”
The problem, the union presidents say, is the new policies — which include cost-saving measures like the elimination of overtime hours for employees and the removal of several mail-sorting machines and public collection boxes — won’t fix the current mail delay problem.
“Stop this postmaster general from destroying a national treasure,” Broward’s Riddell said, urging federal elected leaders to properly fund the Postal Service.
“Our DNA of ‘every piece every day’ has run into an extension of ‘build the wall.’ I started working in the USPS as a clerk in 1981,” Riddell said. “I work with proud men and women who put their everything into doing their part to serve our country by getting the mail delivered. In all these years, I have never seen the disaster that is presently taking place.”
In the coming U.S. presidential election, and to decide several runoff municipal races in South Florida — such as the Miami-Dade mayoral race between Esteban “Steve” Bovo and Daniella Levine Cava — Florida ballots that are mailed in toward the end of October or later for Election Day on Nov. 3 might “not be returned in time to be counted,” a recent letter sent to the head of Florida’s elections by a top U.S. Postal Service executive warned.
This story was originally published August 21, 2020 at 6:00 AM.
