It’s been a rough summer for USPS mail delivery in parts of The Valley. The grumbling has been loud and consistent on social media and Front Porch Forum and around town.
People are grumpy, and rightfully so, about not getting their mail for several weeks at a time. Timely mail delivery is required for timely bill paying, especially during property tax season. It’s critical for banking and legal documents and especially for those whose prescriptions arrive via USPS.
Some weeks have featured envelopes and no packages. Others have featured packages but not mail pick up at the post office and there have been variations on both options.
There’s been a lot of speculation and questionably accurate information about what the problem is. Staff shortages are not new here, in Vermont and beyond. And those who handle our mail for us, in the post offices and those who deliver it to our houses understandably need vacations and time off from work. This issue is not about the people who staff our post offices and deliver our mail. It’s a larger systemic problem.
One thing that does not help, however, is the muzzling of local postal workers by the USPS bureaucracy that dictates that only one person is authorized to speak about delivery and sorting issues. This means that one USPS employee working in Corporate Communications – Atlantic Area, located in Boston, is fielding all inquiries from the Atlantic area. Google reports that there are over 30,000 post offices in this service area.
That’s a lot of post offices to keep track of. When contacted about the local delivery issues as well as strife between staffers, the spokesperson said there were no systemic delays, and said that staff shortages, vacations, etc. often result in personnel from other offices stepping in to “keep mail current.”
Asked about staff strife, the designated spokesperson said The Valley Reporter could not know about that because no one aside from employees would or could know about employee issues. He added “I would question your source.”
Clearly, he’s never lived in a town as small as our towns are.
