USPS - Slow, and seems to be getting worse

[whitehse]

Originally Posted by buymycards

Most of my mail is still being delivered in a timely manner, but I expect major slowdowns.

The instructions from the new Postmaster General (who has no Postal experience) is that absolutely no overtime will be used by anyone. If a carrier is out on the street and they can't get done in 8 hours, they bring the mail back for delivery the next day. That includes packages. If the truck from the processing plant is supposed to leave the plant at 4:30 am to deliver to the local Post Offices, the truck has to leave on time, even if it means letting mail sit on the dock and hopefully, it will go out the next day.

The tough thing about the no overtime rule is that many of the offices are understaffed. Not enough carriers, clerks, mail processors, etc. to go around, and, in the Post Office the hiring and training process can take months. Covid is making the situation even worse.

Locally, I am seeing some of my packages arrive at the plant in Madison at 2:30 in the morning, and normally, they would be on the truck leaving for my Post Office when it leaves at 4:30. Now, the packages are sitting in Madison for 1 or 2 days before they are sent out to the local Post Offices. This is going to create a big bottle neck in the processing centers, and they were having major problems already.

In spite of all of this, I can't complain about the service that I have been receiving.

I do have a question as my wife and I frequently joke that someone must be getting huge amounts of overtime as our local PO is delivering packages on a Sunday with Amazon packages appearing the most frequent Sunday deliveries. Are those workers getting overtime or Sunday shift differential or is that just extra workers who are doing package delivery only and getting paid straight time and likely working perhaps only on Sundays?