Why Is the Mail Still So Slow?

Even as the pandemic wanes, we shouldn’t expect a return to 2019-level service anytime soon.

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The U.S. Postal Service has traditionally been one of the more popular government agencies in America. In a March 2020 Pew survey, 91 percent of both parties rated it favorably, and a RAND Corporation report found that trust in the USPS increased between May and October 2020 even as trust in the CDC fell. 

But the disruptions of the digital age have combined with changing assumptions within the Postal Service itself, culminating in a noticeable slowdown of mail delivery over the last year and ongoing uncertainty about the agency’s future.

A simplistic version of this story centers around a singular villain: Louis DeJoy. In May 2020, DeJoy, a businessman and Republican donor with experience in logistics, was appointed postmaster general by the USPS Board of Governors with then-President Trump’s support. He soon found himself mired in controversy when he implemented a flurry of operational changes—including the dismantling of some mail-sorting machines and a pilot program cutting back overtime delivery in certain areas—that exacerbated mail delays. 

A subsequent report by the Postal Service’s inspector general found that the agency was not adequately prepared for the impact of those changes, regardless of their merits. “No analysis of the service impacts of these various changes was conducted and documentation and guidance to the field for these strategies was very limited and almost exclusively oral. The resulting confusion and inconsistency in operations at postal facilities compounded the significant negative service impacts across the country,” the report said.

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  1. Jordan B.

    One of the biggest failings of the USPS is the hiring process. It takes 2-3 months for someone to get hired, you have to go through two-weeks of training (away from the station you were hired in most likely - and pay for the hotel upfront and for them to reimburse you). The Post Masters within the offices no longer have any decision making abilities - you are literally hired based on a subjective test and by someone over a computer in a large city (there isn't even an interview anymore). Why is mail so slow? Mostly because they are completely understaffed. Some offices are allowed to have up to 8-part time employees and they only have 1-2. That means they are missing out on potentially 60-70 hours of work being completed by part-time employees every single day (which then has to be made up by regular carriers who are making 5-12 dollars more an hour). Furthermore, when new people come in, they are not used to working 50-60 hours a week and walking 15 miles a day. This makes them want to quit and then the post office is right back to where it was.

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    Jim Tung

    A humble request: Whenever a think tank is mentioned (like "the Lexington Institute"), there should be some kind of simple explanation as to who these people are, and what their broad point of view is. Sure, we all know the big ones, but I have no idea who these people are, and why they exist, etc.

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      Eston

      Excellent thought. Or, to not break up articles, the names could be cross-linked to a separate page on the site that acts as a descriptive index of the think tanks, newsletters, and other entities mentioned anywhere on The Dispatch site over time. This would be especially useful if an entity is really a misleadingly named entity, say a "national committee for fair postage rates" that is really a mouthpiece of a single billionaire seeking lower postage rates for his company's packages (not saying it exists, but wouldn't be surprised).

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      Evan Donovan

      I usually assume that if any think tank is cited in a Dispatch article, at least without criticism of it, it is somewhere on the right.

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    Bill Nelson

    Read Scott Lincicome’s Capital column of 2 weeks ago where he discusses the government habit of creating bad policies to fix bad policies. Not encouraging.

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  4. Eric

    I am no fan of DeJoy, but honestly, he is not the problem. The overall design of the USPS is. It’s organic statute, the original Postal Reorganization Act, is based upon the assumption that mail volumes will increase as the population of the country does. This was true in 1970, when the law became effective. It obviously no longer is. Another truism is that the USPS has the largest delivery network in the world. It has to go to every mailbox, everyday. When mail volume boomed, this meant the USPS typically received revenue for 4 or 5 pieces a letter carrier deposited at each stop. Today, the carrier still stops at each house, but deposits fewer mail pieces, meaning there is less revenue for each stop, while the labor costs for that stop have increased over time.

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  5. AB Smits

    Hmm, I forgot to mention in my reply below that DeJoy is an absolute, complete, utter disaster as Postmaster General. Routine business principles don't necessarily apply to a specialized service like the USPS.

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  6. AB Smits

    OK, I am the just about the last person on earth who could be considered "Pollyanna-ish," but I must give credit where it is due: in the past couple of weeks I have seen a return to more timely delivery of mail. Items that I routinely receive are showing up in a more timely manner now. However....after delivery of my mailed mortgage payment was delayed to a degree that I had to go online and make another payment to ensure I didn't get whacked with a late payment fee earlier this year, I now pay most of my bills online. Once bitten, twice shy.

    I get that the pandemic was burdensome to the USPS. I like to support it, because I know people who work for the USPS and they are trustworthy, hard-working people. But in the final analysis, one has to use the most efficient method to get their business (whether for work or personal business) done.

    And speaking of business, the elimination of regular first-class mail in favor of more expensive priority mail has also negatively affected me, as someone who sells items on ebay.

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    Ed P

    It seems to me there is a very convenient looking the other way here.

    Trump and gang installed this partisan lackey over loud objections and his actions then really badly impacted the performance of mail delivery.

    This was not some continuation of ling standing trends. Call a spade a spade please. This was and is obvious and stark.

    Don’t blunt the message. These are very tangible costs of corruption and they should not be papered over.

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    King of Swaziland

    The USPS is a radioactive bucket of urushiol. The fact that 91% of US citizens of both parties support this unaccountable, malignant monstrosity is proof positive that this country is doomed.

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    1. Eric

      I’d be interested to know exactly what you know about the USPS, and the basis for that knowledge. Because it’s clear to me that you don’t know much.

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        King of Swaziland

        I know everything a customer and taxpayer need to know. What are you accusing me of being ignorant of? They take weeks to months to deliver 1st class mail. They run a blatantly illegal spying operation on americans. They adamantly refuse to follow their own postal regulations, and get angry with you and threaten to arrest you when you try to discuss those regulations with them. Their online "response" form is a giant black hole that they don't service. There is plenty more.

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        1. Eric

          Yeah, well, the tenor of your response tells me everything I need to know. You probably think Trump won the election, too.

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            King of Swaziland

            Your powers of deduction are sorely lacking. I didn't think Trump won, I didn't vote for Trump in 2020 or in 2016 (I voted for the Mormon who turned out to be Trump Deranged in 2016), and I didn't dance around the Capitol like a felonious idiot on Jan 6, either.

            You haven't offered one word in defense of the Post Office, just hostility at me. Do they not spy on Americans? Will they take packages that regulations say they have to? Do they deliver 1st class mail in a timely manner? Are they polite to you when you try to politely argue with them? Do they actually respond when you use their contact forms?

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    2. Peter

      This is just hyperbole. Really? Doom be because of stamped mail?

      Cmon.

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        King of Swaziland

        Stamped mail isn't the problem. Overwhelming support of a non-functioning, superfluous, arrogant, abusive, unaccountable quasi-government entity that is too busy spying on Americans to do its actual, chartered job is the problem.

        The USPS is vile.

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    C C Writer

    The postmaster of Chicago just got fired, or transferred, or something. In delivery problems over the past year or two, the US congresswoman has had to get involved. I don't even attempt to complain to the USPS anymore (and the place to report nondelivery seems to have disappeared from the USPS website), I just contact the congresswoman's office. Late last fall I went 2 weeks without any mail delivery at all! Finally got the blls a month later. Apparently when you've gone too ong without any mail delivery they have to send your mail somewhere else to be sorted and then it takes a while to get back to you. Certain parts of the far north side have had the most egregious problems; so have parts of the south side. But in my neighborhood there have been chronic problems over several years (I'd say 5 to 10) so this predated the pandemic.

    By the way, in last fall's election I requested and received my ballot in the mail, but I brought it to a drop box just before election day.

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    1. Seth

      Wow, that's pretty frustrating. I've noticed longer transit times, and strange routing in the tracking (sometimes items will arrive at my local distribution center, then head off somewhere else for another day or two, then back and finally to my local post office and be delivered).

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        C C Writer

        Don't get me started on what happened to the Christmas packages I sent. I'll just say this: one was reported to me as having been delivered on a particular day, but the recipient didn't have it. The actual delivery took place several days later.

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        1. Seth

          Perhaps it was in temporary storage?

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScM4zk_Fyu0

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      C C Writer

      got the bills
      gone too long
      #editbutton

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    Phil H

    Thanks for this piece.

    Delivery of first-class mail has definitely been impacted by the Internet, but it is still needed. Propping it up with advertising "junk" mail may not be3 enough.

    Definitely the retirement funding needs to be reformed -- "pre-funding" is a ball-and-chain around USPS financial stability. I'm also open to ending Saturday delivery. But it may be time to re-consider direct subsidies to the USPS. Either that, or amend the Constitution to remove postal delivery as a federal government obligation.

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      King of Swaziland

      Failure to pre-fund retirement plans is, or should be, criminal. It's nothing more than handing out benefits today, and making someone else pay in the future.

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        Phil H

        I might agree with that -- IF -- every other business/agency that has a retirement plan were under the same restraint. Of course, that would mean there would be even fewer retirement plans than today -- unless you mandated retirement plans and not just 401(k)s. Good luck with that.

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          King of Swaziland

          I meant that comment generally, not specifically.

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