If the mailbox was on the house it would not be so bad but with these late deliveries it is dangerous for me to walk in the street in the dark. Sometimes they deliver early afternoon,sometimes 3:30pm. They always leave the packages in the milbox if they can fit or throw it on the front porch and ever ring the bell anyway.

Last night my mail was delivered after 8:00pm and a notice that they attempted to deliver a package at 8:12 pm which they declined to leave saying there was no access. Authority to manage mail needs to be extended to managers at the individual delivery units, not over a phone from someone sitting at a desk hundreds of miles away wanting a nice,neat report showing no curtailed mail while the reality is that pushes carriers into delivering in the dark. And of course this is exacerbated by the increased parcel volume. If they received just a few each day, they would pay attention to more of them. When we deliver a dozen advertisements on one day, the customers on the route may pay attention to a few of them. We used to do this to affect a more even flow of mail, but now local management is under the mandate of, 'everything has to go every day.' This is also a disservice to our mailers. If I would have been allowed to curtail some of the non-preferrential, non-dated (I don't call it 'junk') mail the first day, perhaps case it when I got back, and delivered it the next day, it would have gotten me on the street earlier to deliver the route which would have gotten me back to the office sooner in the afternoon. Recently, I tied out 18 trays of mail one day and left to deliver the route after 1 p.m., and the next day I had only 4 trays of mail. Also, local management has no authority to curtail non-preferrential, non-dated mail. This would translate to earlier return times from the route. In the office I work, there is sufficient mail to substantiate earlier start times. What more could be done to get carriers off the streets on time? Given all the variables that can affect the ability to complete deliveries by the targeted time, what additional precautions could be taken to enhance carrier safety? The Postal Service agreed with our recommendations to improve the underlying conditions.

We found a mix of underlying reasons for missing the targeted return time: Insufficient staffing, late or improper mail arrival, inaccurate route adjustments, and insufficient supervision. In some areas, package deliveries now regularly occur early in the morning and as late as 10 p.m. In calendar year 2016, only 75 percent of carriers returned to the office by 6 p.m., our report said.īay Valley certainly is seeing the effects of ecommerce activity, as well as Sunday package delivery, and grocery delivery service: The district had a 16 percent growth in package volume in calendar year 2016 over the previous year, topping 101 million packages. Our recent audit of the Bay Valley (CA) District - in the heart of the nation’s ecommerce hub - found that carriers and CCAs fell short of the 100 percent goal by 6 p.m. Furthermore, a wide range of variables, such as weather, employee absences, or new carriers to a route, can affect delivery on a daily basis.Īll of this poses challenges for the Postal Service in meeting its goal of 95 percent of letter carriers being off the street by 5 p.m. This package boom, along with a downsizing of the Postal Service workforce and evolving customer needs, have led to changes in the network and delivery. It’s driving a growth in parcels - even as lettermail volumes decline. Returning late from their routes raises safety concerns - especially when it gets dark earlier - and overtime costs.įew are complaining about the ecommerce explosion, mind you. Postal Service, it means their city carriers and non-career city carrier assistants (CCAs) are delivering packages after the targeted return time of 6:00 p.m. This new paradigm comes at a cost, however. Who doesn’t like finding a package they ordered online on their doorstep at an unexpected time, like, say, late in the evening just before you turn out the porch light for the night?Ĭonsumers have come to expect quick delivery of parcels, often at odd hours of the day.

Arriving today by 8pm