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Pushing the Envelope Blog

Operating During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Date: 04/06/20 | Category: OIG

The global pandemic of COVID-19 has impacted our country in ways that were unimaginable months ago. It is changing how people across the U.S. and around the world are working, shopping, even interacting with one another. States have ordered many stores and businesses to close. Businesses that continue to operate are faced with protecting their employees and customers, while coming up with creative ways to market and deliver their products.

The Postal Service continues to serve the public, operating on the front line, fulfilling the universal service obligation to deliver to every house and business every day. USPS is finding itself serving a population that is relying on it now more than ever. For many home-bound and quarantined people, home delivery is the only source for medicine and other vital supplies. During this time, the Postal Service has also prioritized the safety of its employees and customers.

We recognize the reality of the pandemic and have adapted our operations to maintain continuity while ensuring the safety of our employees. We are taking abundant care to minimize exposure to both our employees and Postal Service employees, using technology whenever possible. As we have told our employees, we also ask you to follow CDC guidelines, remain home as much as possible, and stay safe.

For questions or concerns about delivery during the pandemic, please go to usps.com to track mail or get information from the USPS Coronavirus FAQs page.

Postal Service employees, for work-related complaints or issues, please use our Hotline to let us know.

Leave a Comment

Your Name
Anonymous
Jan 2, 2021
Your Comment
I completely understand that due to pandemic there will be delays in delivery but it makes no sense to me how USPS can still get away with charging people for a 2 day delivery and not actually deliver packages for 2 weeks. I ordered a package from FL on the 12th and it wasn’t delivered until the 26th. I could DRIVE to Fl and back 7 times in the amount of time it took for them to deliver. There has got to be a better way. Bare minimum they should be refunding shipping payments if they can’t follow through.
Your Name
Kim mcneil
Jan 1, 2021
Your Comment
Who do I contact to complain about a postmaster not wearing a mask? A name badge and in regular work attire? Giving out peoples addresses, not keeping building clean?
Your Name
O
Jan 1, 2021
Your Comment
I sent a small package to a friend in São Paulo Brazil from the U.S. on October 27th, and it’s been stuck in customs over there since November 5th. I understand that the postal service needs to take extra precautions during Covid-19, but the slow process is ridiculous. I paid for first class delivery too. I need to see some progress here or I will be asking for a refund before the 90 day deadline.
Your Name
Luke
Jan 1, 2021
Your Comment
yall are a bunch of corrupt liars. yall got rid of the mail sorting machines just to turn around with this farce,
"ALERT: USPS IS EXPERIENCING UNPRECEDENTED VOLUME INCREASES AND LIMITED EMPLOYEE AVAILABILITY DUE TO THE IMPACTS OF COVID-19. WE APPRECIATE YOUR PATIENCE." My post office is handing packages to the wrong people. this is unacceptable that I cant opt out of this service that I already paid for with taxes. this is an unconstitutional monopoly.
Your Name
Nancy Hill
Jan 1, 2021
Your Comment
The postal employees behind the counter at the Postal Outlet in 5-Points Shopping Center on Woodbine Road in Pace, FL are not wearing masks. I have been there twice during December and no masks anywhere in sight. I wear a mask everywhere because I care about others and am not an inconsiderate person. Why do they have not to wear masks when dealing with the public? I find this not only Disgusting but deplorable. I am surprised that you do not require them to wear masks when dealing with the public. Please respond.

Your Name
Patty
Dec 29, 2020
Your Comment
I mailed twenty five letters on Dec. 16, 2020 to family members and friends, mostly out of state, from a US dropbox on the corner of Downs Road and Baldwin Road in Hempstead, NY. Today is Dec. 29, 2020 and not one of the letters mailed have been delivered. I know we are dealing with a pandemic so if the post office is not going to collect mail from the Dropbox then remove them and stop selling stamps because I really don’t have money to waste on stamps if the mail I put them on is not going to be delivered.
Your Name
MaryBeth A Rhea
Dec 29, 2020
Your Comment
Only 3 folks in front of me... I am old and had a PKG. Waited quietly. Window opened. Waited quietly while VERY heavy, very slow clerk dropped things in window behind him... OK till then. He approached window and began a lecture about NOT coming to his window until called, said he needed a break?
Was he NOT on the clock??? I wanted to ask him if they had recess or nap time
  
Your Name
Cartero
Jan 7, 2021
Your Comment
Yes needed a break and many states through their legislatures hopefully following the will of the majority of their people have passed laws requiring breaks to prevent overbearing employers from hurting people. We call it 5he mail stream because it never stops. The people who work in that stream however do stop, and if they are not kept in good shape they drop and never return to duty.

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

Your Name
Joseph S
Dec 29, 2020
Your Comment
What utter nonsense. So many articles about the Postal Service, it is quite clear THEY do not know what they are 'talking' about.
The problem: Why are we not releasing clear and understandable reports?!

Worked at Mail Processing plants, EAS17, in Queens MPC located in Whitestone N.Y. and also Crooked Hill here in Harrisburg, PA. Retired after 37 years.
As an clerk in the 70s I hand sorted SIX [machine] trays per hour. One every ten minutes. The point THEY knew I was not lazy.

Yes, there are employees spending beyond their means believing they can always get overtime. I never believed in OVERTIME pay - We DO have the skills and resources to process the mail in the allotted time frame EIGHT HOURS.

It was worse in Harrisburg P&DC. I recall saying to myself what is going on here employees coming up to me full of vim and vinegar demanding where is MY overtime, staying 2 hours at end of shift, reporting two hours early OR working an layoff day. - as I never scheduled any as they were getting every day.
They reported me to everyone they can. The APWU - they can NOT 'grieve ME into scheduling overtime. I introduced the concept our current Postmaster has taken in the late 1980s ! And to cease Saturday delivery - not to cut service but because Saturday service does not make sense. And overtime to get out 4- 6 trays of letter, at app. 300 pcs per tray, is ridiculous. Two clerks at time and a half and then have an vehicle on standby to transport it to the facility - where the carrier is already on the street attending to His/Her appointed rounds.
I do not - never supported that.
But I did not leave mail behind.
Presented to my manager, I was not asking, I'm going to cease, DENY premium pay and still get [all] the mail out. He asked, quite dubiously, how are you going to accomplish that. I appraised the people as being an proud group of people; yes, several WERE taking advantage of appeasement; and management is not responsible for you spending money which is not an part of your pay schedule; the mail you process on overtime is NOT in fact getting into the mailbox. I explained ... When the mail remains behind they will feel guilty, they DO believe that mail belongs in our last dispatch. OVERNIGHT everyone began processing ALL the mail.
IF management allows their people to whine and moan and worse of all say "Yea, I know how you feel - nobody appreciates us" - then you are lost. Basically giving the employees minutes after hitting the clock no incentive towards excellence. Why would any manager allow their employees to feel as failures. Pride is an motivator.

OK - CV19 ..... WE DID NOT COWER IN THE FACE OF ANTHRAX OR THE THREAT OF TERRORIST ATTACK after 9/11 !

I read there are 74 employees passing from CV19 out of 12,000 having CV19??? Are those TWELVE thousand verified?

Many postal operations - the employees by design are not close to each other. The Bar code reader types, OCR, BCS have an feeder and an sweeper - they do not get in close proximity. The mail handler is assigned to an Bay/truck - the next is app. eight feet.
It seems to me, and I could not be completely correct, it sounds like the militant truck driver saying He can not drive the truck because it is unsafe 'no headlights' working during - DAYLIGHT HOURS! As Laura S. said "get your butt in that drivers seat and get that truck to your next destination and THEN report its defect".

The APWU is wrong to expect Postal employees to receive 'hazardous duty pay'. Along with pay and benefits their salary is envied.
Your Name
Peg Rose
Dec 26, 2020
Your Comment
This a.m., for the 2nd time in recent weeks, the USPS employee that helped me at the counter at the Boonville, IN Post Office, was not covering her mouth or nose with a mask. She had a mask over her chin, only. She appeared to be a fairly young adult. The last time this happened a few weeks ago, the USPS employee that waited on me at the Boonville, IN counter, did not have a mask anywhere in sight. He was a man who appeared to be middle-aged. I am 65 years old and am taking all precautions that are recommended, as well as mandated, in order to prevent the spread of COVID. When I see postal employees taking COVID this lightly, it makes me feel defeated.
Your Name
Anonymous
Dec 25, 2020
Your Comment
All of your packages have been seized. CARRY ON
  
Your Name
Misty M
Jan 3, 2021
Your Comment
Same thing happened to 3 of my packages. They all have jewelry items sold on Ebay. Nothing to seize, nothing illegal. I don't get it. What is going on with USPS???

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

Your Name
douglas shaw
Dec 24, 2020
Your Comment
You mean global scamdemic. you are just holding peoples packages hostage
Your Name
Anonymous
Dec 23, 2020
Your Comment
USPS has been a mess for years, even before the COVID. Now that they have COVID as an excuse, it is even getting worse... So shameful to have so bad postal service for this country...
Your Name
DAVID LONGTIN
Dec 17, 2020
Your Comment
How do my wife Luann and I collect our mail during COVID pandemic?
Your Name
Anonymous
Dec 16, 2020
Your Comment
I am so sick of "covid" being everyone's excuse for everything! How about some accountability, guys?! Why has my package been in customs almoat 3 weeks? Covid. Why haven't I been updated on these delays and why can't I request more info? Covid. Why do I have to go to work and do my job but you guys at USPS and customs don't?! Thats right... Covid
  
Your Name
Reality Check
Dec 19, 2020
Your Comment
I'm so sick of whiners who only think about themselves. Look into the articles that are all over the place and you can easily google and you'll find out that the post office is working, employees are putting themselves at risk, many have to be out because they come into contact with people who tested positive, and that is an unprecedented surge in online shopping.

Many people are struggling for many different reasons, and your whining entitlement just makes 2020 suck even more.

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

     
Your Name
M Abbott
Dec 29, 2020
Your Comment
No hes right. Same thing here. the Irony is , the failures of USPS, Customs, everyone in the mail chain we hear about how the federal employees are being protected and what" heroes" they are on the "front lines" YET that same federal Govt went in front of congress and pushed for a carve out denying Nursing Home and Medical workers FMLA and other help to force them to stay on the job even when sick with covid. So please you cant handle mail deliveries but you expect Dr s and nurses ect to work with covid and literally Die, and you want me to think your a Hero??? Do your jobs. Be accountable to the public stop holding their property and taking money for services your not delivering. Apply the same standard to the real heroes and -Dr's nurses medical workers. Its unbelievable that my 71 year old mother caught covid being forced literally back to work in a nursing home under threat of losing her income-and may lose her life while you federal workers complain about how "your heroes and your safety comes first." Nauseating. How about this apply the same standard go to work get your jobs done or be fired.If its good enough for health care workers -real heroes its good enough for you. SMH

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

  
Your Name
Anonymous
Jan 17, 2021
Your Comment
I'm in the same boat as you. My package has been sitting there 5 weeks now. I ordered 10 weeks ago and haven't gotten anything. It's their office because I ordered from 3 other places same day from China and got them in 3 weeks. Covid delay is BS excuse!

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

Your Name
Liz Estrada
Dec 14, 2020
Your Comment
In Palmdale California the postal workers snd especially the mail carriers need to AT ALL TIMES WEAR A MASK! They are not doing this. The carriers of mail do not wear masks at all in zip codes 93550-93552 FIX IT PLEASE! The carrier looked so sick today coughing and conversing with various neighbors. No social distances were made. How do I know they do not have COVID-19? I don’t. Please stop-the spread tell them to adhere to the Governor of ca. Orders.
  
Your Name
Chris Nelson
Dec 15, 2020
Your Comment
You are ridiculous!! the masks don’t stop the spread.. pull you head out of the communist ass that it is in and wake up!!! Your part of the problem in the USA not the solution!!

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

     
Your Name
Ron Tomei
Dec 16, 2020
Your Comment
Well said....masks are useless and even the self made health expert Fauci said it. The sheepish public is lead to believe a mask is their salvation.Antway back to the issue...I am tracking a package coming from China to Palm Springs Ca. The package took a shorter time to get to the U.S. and is still not in my hands. U.S.P.S tracking shows it in L.A. for 5 days then onto San Bernardino where I am at 5 more days and counting. Oh yes it's because of you guessed it....covid.....

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

        
Your Name
Common Sense
Jan 26, 2021
Your Comment
You're joking right? Fauci said it almost a YEAR ago. Things were different then. He said that based on how bad it was, americans could make it worse for themselves by not wearing them properly. He's since retracted that statement multiple times now that millions are dead worldwide.

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

     
Your Name
Haydel Freidencork
Dec 19, 2020
Your Comment
The masks on their own do not stop the spread, but worn properly and if made of sufficient material, they absolutely help reduce the spread.

You ignorant, science-denying, conspiracy-theory spreading tools would be funny if you weren't doing so much harm. You propagate stupid and false ideas that you read on Facebook, which is the world's biggest toolbox.

https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2020/p0714-americans-to-wear-masks.html

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

     
Your Name
Anthony Richard Montoro
Jan 6, 2021
Your Comment
People like you with your narrow views are the reason why were in such trouble in this country right now. Masks don’t stop the spread? Well me and my friends and the people I work with have been wearing masks since the day they started and not one of us has gotten sick nor have we gotten anybody else sick.

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)