You're not the only one wondering what's up this month with mail deliveries -- or non-deliveries. Tracking expected packages online seems like a holiday fantasy tale rather than reliable guidance.
"I just got a package last night [Dec. 19] that was mailed Dec. 1," a Royal Oak resident posts on Facebook in a thread with nearly four dozen mail gripes.
A Washington Post headline warns Tuesday: "Millions of Christmas presents may arrive late because of Postal Service delays / Unprecedented package volume has paralyzed the agency."
The paper quotes a Michigan postal worker who spoke on the condition of anonymity:
"No parcels are moving at all. As bad as you think it is, it's worse.”
Full bins at a Cleveland sorting center show this month's jam. (Photo: Fox8)
Locally, Heather Catallo of WXYZ reports on "local holiday shipping gridlock:"
Thousands of packages are stacked up inside a Metro Detroit mail distribution center as a perfect storm of the pandemic, holiday mail volume and what some call poor planning.
On Monday, the broadcaster says, she "counted at least 50 tractor-trailers waiting to get on to the Allen Park USPS property, not to mention the dozens of trailers stacked with packages already inside."
"It has mail from wall to wall," said American Postal Workers Union Detroit Local 295 President Keith Combs. "This is something that I have never seen in my 30 years of being a postal employee." ...
Combs says letters are also piled up at the USPS facility on West Fort Street in Detroit.
A postal worker reader comments anonymously on a Reddit thread about Catallo's report: "I work at the Pontiac processing and distribution facility. It's a mess here too."
Those accounts match this Washington Post description of a national mess:
Some processing plants are now refusing to accept new mail shipments. The backlogs are so pronounced that some managers have reached out to colleagues in hopes of diverting mail shipments to nearby facilities. But often, those places are full, too. Meanwhile, packages sit on trucks for days waiting for floor space to open so the loads can be sorted. ...
The end result: Many families won’t see online orders arrive in time for Christmas.
WXYZ posts a five-paragraph response from the U.S. Postal Service about the Allen Park mess. An excerpt:
"We have taken steps to address issues caused by the pandemic, ... including hiring seasonal employees and allocating employees to facilities that need additional resources.
"There has already been progress at the Detroit NDC [Network Distribution Center], and we are confident that our processing and delivery will return to normal levels quickly."
