Postal Service Delivery Times

[danemayer]

We've been full timing since last June and have had mail forwarded by Escapees in Livingston, TX almost every week. Because the date that the mail is sent is confirmed via email and stamped on the envelope, it's easy to calculate how long the delivery took.

Escapees has a dedicated truck picking up mail daily and taking it directly to the North Houston Distribution Center. You would expect that to cut a day from delivery times by eliminating the trip through the Livingston Post Office. The forwarded mail is sent first class, which the post office has long said takes 1-3 days.

In fact, over the past 8 months we've never had a mail delivery take less than 6 calendar days. Usually it's 7-8 days and once it was 14 days. One envelope never showed up.

Last week I opened a case with the USPS requesting they research the slow delivery times and today I got a call back.

The USPS rep explained that the North Houston Distribution Center has been overwhelmed with mail volume due to high population growth and other factors. Just last week, new machines and additional employees came online, so service should improve.

More interesting, the rep explained that the USPS no longer provides 1-3 day First Class Delivery. She said the new delivery time is 3-6 days. The rep said that for faster service I should use Priority Mail.

And she added that I should remember that for many years the post office has done a fine job.

 

[Mrsfish]

On February 10th we sent a package from Tucson to Denver for our granddaughters Valentine's Day. Sent it in the morning via 2 day priority air. It did not arrive until the 17th. When we went back to the post office to request a refund, our request was refused and we were told that 2 day could take anywhere from 5 to 7 days. And btw, the weather was perfect during that time.

 

[TravelTiger]

Not related to full-timing, but recently our neighborhood forum discussed the poor delivery/pickup service we have been receiving. One neighbor went to the post office to discuss it with the Postmaster. She was told it was not a postal carrier's job to pick up mail from mailboxes....!? Really? That's news to me.


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[jmgratz]

Seems to me these complaints should be forwarded to the Postmaster General in Washington DC as they are trying to iron out many problems with the USPS. If they don't know about the issues they cannot be fixed.

 

[MCTalley]

We've been full timing since last June and have had mail forwarded by Escapees in Livingston, TX almost every week. Because the date that the mail is sent is confirmed via email and stamped on the envelope, it's easy to calculate how long the delivery took.....

interesting that our mail typically is sent Priority Mail from Escapees. Possibly since we have it forwarded less often and it piles up a bit more? At any rate, with only one exception, the mail has usually taken only 2-3 calendar days to get to us pretty much regardless of location.

 

[MTPockets]

Hummmm. We've used RVMail.com in Crestview, FL now for three years. We have our mail sent 3 or so times per month. Sometimes First class, Sometimes Piority mail. Just got a first class envelope today that was mailed Thursday. That's three business days as the mail actually got to our park general address yesterday. It takes the park a day to resort and put into our site box. Priority mail has always been 2-3 days, even in some places I would have considered pretty remote. The key may be the large sorting centers. We did have a five day Priority pkg when in Las Vegas last October.

 

[Bobby A]

I hope the USPS can get all there issues sorted out (no pun intended), I certainly would not wanna see the post office go under or have it out sourced, it would be a real shame. JMHO.

 

[donr827]

Going back quite a few years first class mail always took at least 7 days but there was another class of mail you could use called Air Mail. It cost more but you could get your mail in 2 days. Later on the USPS starting shipping most all mail by air and did away with the Air Mail class. I think that USPS, not sure, is trucking more mail now because supposedly its cheaper but of course slower.
Don

 

[szewczyk_john]

As a USPS employee I can assure you that the National Headquarters know what is going on with delivery standards. They are the ones making the changes. We have seen many changes made to our organization. Former Postmaster General Donahue made sweeping changes that drastically reduced staffing and relaxed standards for delivery. He was intent on running the Postal Service as a for profit business and not as a service. While we have seen a reduction in volume across the board it has not matched the extent of the staffing cuts. Many facilities that processed the mail have been cut or merged. For example lets say we had 2 machines in 2 facilities 25 miles apart that ran first class mail and put it in letter carrier order. Each machine ran for 4 hours a day. These 2 facilities were combined or one eliminated totally so that the 1 machine could run for an entire shift. The problem is that there is not enough time between when the buildings to get the mail processed it and then to return it to the office for the carrier to get it out the same day. A real life example that is playing out currently is that Erie, PA facility is being drastically reduced while the mail is being split for processing between Cleveland, Pittsburgh and Buffalo. All of this facilities are 2 hours away from Erie.

Management has also hurt package services by similar issues. We have critical entry times for the mail to arrive and then dispatch times by when the mail needs to be send out. The changes I am speaking about looked real promising on paper but do not work in the real world. A plane delay of 10 minutes may delay an entire cities priority mail delivery for a day. Management has also closed smaller offices and window hours and then made agreements with private stores (like Staples) to accept the mail and perform window operations. Why should this bother you? your envelopes are not considered mail until it reaches the post office. A staples employee has no background checks and if the rifle the mail they may be disciplined by the store owner. A postal employee would face criminal charges.

I am a 25 year veteran of the USPS and we constantly were voted as the number 1 trusted government agency. This is done without any tax money. We pay our own way through postage paid by the customer without any tax dollars. Management seems **** bent on catering to the big mass mailers at the expense of the average US citizen. A new Postmaster General was sworn in recently so now we have to what to see what her plans are. We applauded when management eliminated double handling of mail pieces and found other advances in efficiency. The changes in window hours and delivery standards are going to hurt our long term future.

 

[wdk450]

I have got 2-3 days USPS delivery of my forwarded mail from a Sacramento UPS store box to General Delivery in Northern/Southern California and Oregon over the past year.

 

[AAdams]

We have our mail sent from Madison SD via Priority mail most of the time. Normally is takes 3-4 days to get it to us no matter where we are. The exception to that is SD to northern MN takes 8 days. On items we want tracking numbers for we always use Fed-Ex ground saver pack. I was shocked that the mail I requested yesterday by Fed-Ex ( Our new truck title ) arrived today (Wed.) instead of the scheduled Friday date.

 

[mountainlovers76]

You must be a union craft employee.

 

[nascardavis]

We also utilize a mail service from Madison SD and for 4+ years we've received all our requested mail with 3-4 days with a couple of exceptions. The exceptions were not the fault of the sender it was the USPS. On at least 5 occasions the receiving USPS office sent the mail back to Madison because they were not advised that "General Delivery" mail was coming even though it was addressed to us. We were responsible for notifying the USPS that we were expecting mail delivered under "General Delivery". This occurred at small locations but was still a pain in the ........ all thanks to USPS and they wonder why they have competition.

 

[szewczyk_john]

I am a craft employee, but what does that have to do with me explaining why there are delays in mail delivery?

 

[VKTalley]

I am a craft employee, but what does that have to do with me explaining why there are delays in mail delivery?

John, thank you for your explanation of the USPS delivery delays. Hopefully, others will understand that not everything can be "instant delivery" but a reasonable delivery is fine.

Quick question for yo...how is Calvin doing? I met you all at the Urbana rally and he met my son at Keesler AFB, when David arrived there from basic.

 

[MCTalley]

Apparently not much has been fixed in the North Houston mail facility. We are literally a little over an hour's drive from Livingston and are on day seven waiting for our mail to be delivered. Look how long it sat in the NH facility waiting to be sorted.

 

[wdk450]

I use an UPS Store mailbox for my mailing address. My son sent me a box for Father's day, and I had no idea how big it was. This time I FAXed the UPS store with different mail forwarding instructions, instead of General Delivery mail. I had them get my mail out of my mailbox, put it in the box, and forward the box VIA UPS to Thousand Trails Snowflower, off I-80 at the crest of the Sierra Nevada mountains (6500 foot elevation). The TT office received my box, and delivered it directly to my Bighorn door.

I use the free E-FAX website to send FAXes from my computer. I use FAX to communicate with my UPS store because they are an immigrant Indian family, and we sometimes have difficulty communicating correctly over the phone.

 

[MCTalley]

This will be the last mail forwarding where we use USPS. From now on, I'm having Escapees send our stuff FedEx 3-Day. Since we will only be here one more day I'm now going to have a co-worker forward this package on to Washington for us at additional expense. That is assuming it ever arrives.

Image captured on 7/31/2015.

 

[AAdams]

I am like you and feel USPS is not performing very well, to say the least in your case. I use FedEx One rate now all the time. Cost a little more but is very reliable.

 

[buddyboy]

We used FedEx or UPS almost exclusively when we were full-time. More expensive, yes, but we were confident we would receive our mail and packages.