Santa may be late this year.
A U.S. postal service overflowed weeks ago struggling to deliver packages, veteran employees said, warning that holiday gifts may not arrive by Christmas as tens of thousands of packages pile up at the facility. processing area of Philadelphia.
“Don’t use the post office right now, because we can’t deliver the mail,” said Laurence Love, assistant office manager who operates mail sorting machines at the Philadelphia Processing and Delivery Center.
Facilities across the region are so packed that there is barely enough space to walk, employees in Philadelphia, Lehigh Valley and South Jersey said. In Allentown, there are about ten mail-filled trailers sitting in the parking lot, with no space to unload items.
In Philadelphia, there are packages dated before Thanksgiving spread across the facility, employees said. Last week, a mile-long caravan of dozens of mail-filled delivery trucks waited hours outside the Southwest Philadelphia site because there was no room to unload the packages.
People all over the region say they see their items scanned at processing plants, but they have never been scanned. The packages have taken so long that customers are demanding reimbursements from companies that are already struggling to survive the pandemic.
Widespread delays are caused by a massive shortage of staff due to the increase in coronavirus cases, the reduction of long-term jobs and a liberal policy of pandemic layoffs, combined with a record increase in packages as more people shop online. In addition, private express carriers such as UPS and FedEx, similarly, seeing record parcel levels, cut off delivery service for some retailers, which has channeled even more parcel through an already overflowing postal service.
Delays should not be a shock to anyone: Employees, union leaders and outside experts have sounded alarms of an impending disaster over the holidays for months, but believe the agency did not properly prepare and hire enough temporary workers. , which aggravated the delay and delays.
“You’re not going to get your Christmas presents because we don’t have the people and ingenuity to do that,” said Love, a 35-year-old employee.
The USPS also warned customers of a more intense season, with the peak week of December 16-21, and urged people to send gifts early. However, it is sent to customers that packages shipped on December 18 could be delivered before Christmas, although companies in the Philly area have reported that packages shipped on November 27 will not be delivered, no updates tracking your status or location.
In response to a request for comment, the agency shared a press release citing record package numbers, staff shortages due to COVID-19, and air capacity “capacity challenges.” and trucks as reasons for delays. USPS said it has hired holiday staff, expanded delivery and business hours, leased more vehicles and expanded technology to improve package tracking.
“The postal service management team, unions and management associations are working closely together to address the issues and concerns that arise as we focus on delivering the holidays for the nation,” he said. the agency in the statement.
Employees described the internal conditions as embarrassing and limit dangerous.
“You can’t even move, it’s the amount of mail we have in this building,” said Nick Casselli, president of Local 89 of the U.S. postal worker at the Philadelphia plant.
“In 33 years, I’ve never seen it so bad,” Andy Kubat, president of the Lehigh Valley Area Local, said of the Allentown facility.
Representatives from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration recently visited the Philadelphia and Allentown plants to inspect the conditions, according to reports. An OSHA spokesman did not respond to requests for comment.
The delay comes at the end of a tumultuous year for postal service, after new postmaster general manager Louis DeJoy instituted cost-cutting operational changes that led to widespread mail delays this summer. These changes – some of which were intended to better position the agency to deliver packages amid declining mail volumes – were reversed in the fall after federal judges intervened before the election.
While there doesn’t appear to be any changes at the business level that play a significant role in the current holiday delay, employees say the agency has not been properly prepared.
Employees warned of the impending holiday catastrophe in October, as the diversion of resources to the delivery of election mail meant that packages were beginning to pile up. They never fully recovered from that, and then came the holiday package tsunami, and now Philadelphia employees worry it may take a long time in January to clear up the backlog.
There is no good data to provide a complete overview of package delivery, unlike letters, but reports show that current delays appear across the country.
“It’s across the country, not just in Philadelphia,” Casselli said.
Philadelphia residents and businesses said they have seen packages sitting at St. Louis facilities. Louis and San Diego for weeks using the tracking system. In Cleveland, dozens of trucks waited in a 12-hour line to drop off and pick up USPS packages.
Each year, the postal service hires tens of thousands of seasonal workers to cope with the holiday influx. In the early 2000s, Kubat said, the Allentown plant would hire a few hundred temporary employees. Since 2018, as email volumes have declined, the number of contractors has dropped dramatically.
This year, despite initial predictions about a holiday wave, only 30 temporary employees were hired to work at the Allentown plant, and retention has been low. Kubat said about ten hired workers left their last two weeks due to grueling hours. “A woman quit smoking before her first day was over.”
“It’s too little, too late,” he said. “They’re working them to death.”
Ray Daiutolo Sr., a spokesman for the USPS in the Philadelphia area, declined to provide information on the total number of temporary hires made in Philadelphia. Casselli said the package classification section of the plant only added 48 temporary workers.
According to Adobe Analytics, the peak in online ordering, which was projected to increase by 33% year-on-year between November and December, to $ 189 billion, according to Adobe Analytics, as maximum coronavirus cases eliminate the work of hundreds of postal workers.
More than 200 Philadelphia postal employees have tested positive for COVID-19 since Nov. 20, Casselli said. About ten Allentown workers have contracted the virus in the past two weeks, said Kubat, who is in quarantine after being exposed to work.
Across the South Jersey region, more than 120 postal workers have tested positive since Dec. 1, according to daily reports reviewed by The Inquirer.
Small businesses that are already struggling feel the impacts. Sellers from sites like eBay and Etsy have said it takes more than three weeks for priority packages to arrive and marketers say customers are asking where their orders are.
Patti Lyons, owner of Peace Valley Lavender Farm in Doylestown, said they have used the USPS to ship their handmade lavender infusion products nationwide for 20 years. He said, that this year’s delays are the worst he has ever seen.
Customers have still received at least 40 packages shipped Dec. 3, with tracking information showing items registered at Fountainville, Bucks County, Office, or Philadelphia processing facilities, but never scanned. towards its next destination. Customer complaints come in daily, he said, and about ten have asked for refunds.
Lyons said they have added UPS as a shipping option, although it is more expensive for customers. He said they will add a warning to their website about the delays, but he cares so he can dissuade customers from placing a full order.
“We have already sent an email saying that this is what is happening, that we are sorry and that we need to be patient,” he said. “But that’s not getting people’s packages to reach them.”
Susan Murphy, the creator of Jawnaments, the small company that makes Philly-inspired ornaments, said the 327 packages she mailed are at a limit. He left a portion of the lot at the Fishtown post office on Dec. 5 and the rest at the location at 30th Street on Dec. 11, but they have yet to be scanned into the system, even were received.
“Anything you bring to the post office on or after Dec. 5, a lot of it is AWOL,” Murphy said.
He said he receives about a dozen emails a day from customers asking about their orders. At least one person has requested a refund and has threatened to write a negative review. Since then, he has added a banner at the top of his Etsy page that warned people about delays and that he can’t guarantee delivery before Christmas.
He tries not to blame the postal workers (he even brought donuts to the Fishtown office this week to relieve employee stress), but said it’s hard not to get frustrated.
“We need reindeer and we need Santa to help the U.S. Postal Service,” Murphy said. “I’m going to buy Santa a whole city special as soon as it’s over.”