So, I am really fed up with the changes to the USPS service. They said they were going to slow things down, and wow have they. Packages that arrived in country have always take 2-4 days to make it here, now 7-10 is becoming the normal in the last couple of months. Delivery dates are not met, even when the show up.
Latest package got processed and out of China to the US faster than it can make it from 2 locations within 170 miles of me.
They really are doing great things with our delivery system! I doubt it will ever become normal again. Even USPS priority packages from MD to IL now seem to take 5-7 days as well, have had a couple of them. Not sure what value they now have in my mind. I owned and ran a small nursery of a few years, for about 4 months of the year I was shipping 30+ USPS priority boxes a week, none lost and average of 3 days anywhere in the US.
departed shipping partner facility, usps awaiting item——CAROL STREAM,IL 60188
18
2021/12/03 05:05:00
arrived shipping partner facility, usps awaiting item——CAROL STREAM,IL 60188
17
2021/12/02 14:30:00
departed shipping partner facility, usps awaiting item——GREENWOOD,IN 46143
16
2021/11/29 18:38:00
departed shipping partner facility, usps awaiting item——LOS ANGELES,CA 90040
15
2021/11/28 20:02:00
arrived shipping partner facility, usps awaiting item——LOS ANGELES,CA 90040
14
2021/11/26 22:47:00
delivery to local courier
13
2021/11/25 19:53:29
departed from facility.——VERNON,VERNON,US
12
2021/11/25 19:52:03
arrived at sort facility.——VERNON,VERNON,US
11
2021/11/25 09:47:20
arrived at airport of destination
10
2021/11/22 15:09:00
departed from airport of origin
9
2021/11/22 14:09:00
custom clearance completed
8
2021/11/22 09:00:00
arrive at international airport to abroad——CHINA
7
2021/11/21 11:01:21
departed facility in processing center——SHENZHEN
6
2021/11/21 09:01:21
departed facility in shenzhen
5
2021/11/21 03:36:06
arrived at sort facility shenzhen——SHENZHEN
4
2021/11/20 13:54:37
departed from facility guangzhou——GUANGZHOU,CHINA
3
2021/11/20 11:00:00
arrived at sort facility guangzhou
2
2021/11/19 23:54:37
shipment information received
All major shipping companies are having staffing issues from my understanding. Several companies publicly predicted that shipping around the holiday season was going to be a problem. Amazon reportedly threw a huge pile of money at the holiday shipping problem. It might bet marginally better after the holidays.
My Theory: I think a lot of people woke up during the pandemic and realized that they hated their jobs. They got a taste of spending more time with their families and being under less stress. Many subsequently reevaluated their lives and decided to take different jobs. Now there are employers with a lot of underpaid overworked positions that need filling and they are having trouble getting people to agree to their terms. Either the companies will have to offer better incentives or they must wait to find people desperate enough to fill the positions. The issue is exacerbated by staffing issues in the present. If you start a job and the your department is hopelessly understaffed and you have to do the work of three people…you probably just go find a different job.
I have had serious issues with FEDEX the last few months as well. Packages shipped on a Monday, priority overnight (10:30 am delivery time) sometimes don’t make it until Wednesday. I collect water samples for environmental monitoring and it has been devastating to lose so much data. I don’t expect it will get any better until after the new year, if then.
Due to lab constraints, I can only ship on M, T, W. so it puts a real crimp on my ability to get the work done. No alternative yet, we tend to have long term contracts that I have no control over.
Yeah, it’s gotten really bad. This is somewhat separate from the advance-notice slowdown for domestic mail and package service, though. I noticed back in May that a few ali packages were super delayed…even had one lost for the first time in the US. Over the last three months or so - you’re spot on correct - it takes longer (sometimes twice as long) for my packages to get from customs/hub to my door as it does for them to make it from seller to plane-out-of-china. This has been true for all four hubs that mine have come through (CA, NY, FL, and IL). A HUGE part of this is the involvement of both Pitney Bowes and Newgistics “partner services”….they both suck eggs, hard. My fear is that the dream of privatizing the USPS that republicans have been clamoring for over the last 15-20 years may actually be on the horizon. If this is any indication of things to come, it will be a very sad day for one of the foundations of this country (really…mail delivery is one of those things!).
In my area, FedEx ground service has really taken a dump, too, but normal express/overnight is fine. UPS has always been pretty awesome around here but they seem to be less favored these days especially after Amazon started up their own fleet.
The post office has their own incredible fleet of planes, trucks, and delivery vehicles, and while they’ve had a lot of personnel changes and early retirements/regular retirements lately, it’s not really a staffing or availability issue with them as it is for general freight trucking (although I don’t know how much they contract out these days with freight companies…maybe more than before?). It’s a systemic thing primarily coming from the new PG that came in under trump’s administration. He’s done a number of things (above and beyond the pre-election scandal stuff) that have hamstrung the postal facilities and workers. Even took processing machines offline, going so far as to decommission them and haul them to storage - that’s huge and can’t be undone easily or quickly. I know being in the red is a long-time problem and they’ve taken some hits in volume that price increases haven’t offset, but the direction they’re taking seems to be an excessively poor one.
Have they figured out who/why a large number of packages were dumped into a ravine in Alabama a week or two ago? Must be some disgusted worker who wanted to make a forceful parting gesture before quitting (?)
The post office has been the worst lately. I cringe anytime I see that my packages shipped with another carrier get handed off to the post office for actual delivery. Last month, I had a package sit at a local post office for 4 days before they delivered it.
You see that part in your post where it says "usps awaitingitem" ? That means that USPS hasn't even received the item from the third party service. Your complaint is with the other shipping company, not USPS.
Not really. Since USPS is contracting with them, they call the shots really. This is deemed acceptable lately, unfortunately, under new/current management. When the postal service did most of it themselves and/or used previous contractors, these delays were rarely a thing.
Dismantling the postal service little by little and pushing the operations and profits (haha?) to private companies has been a long time goal. Even if what we’re seeing isn’t the fruit of that goal, it’s all been orchestrated for purpose and it’s clearly not working well. I don’t mind being a little more patient but this is ridiculous. When I heard that Pitney Bowes was getting into the game, I knew it wouldn’t turn out well. Reading up on Newgistics and the PG’s previous involvement with them and attempt to get them into the USPS haul line…well, it’s just wrong (and also isn’t turning out well, on a practical level). I just hope that this will be corrected soon, one way or another, and that we can find a way to return the postal service to what it usually was (generally great). Undoing the ball of yarn, however…this stuff never should have been allowed to happen the way it did, from the root.
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We accept Paypal, Venmo, Zelle, Cash, Check, Money Order and all Major Credit Cards… :partying_face:
I had a mini a guy send me supposed to come Thursday. Made it to my local hub then sent back to regional hub where it’s been siting and now getting the arriving late message. I don’t get it especially sending it back to the regional hub.
Not really, 4 months ago USPS would have used their contractors to truck packages between hubs. Now it appears that something has significantly changed in that process. That change would be driven by USPS. For years on my way to work, while driving on the interstate, I have seen 1 to 5 USPS contract mail trucks every morning… now they are gone as well.
When something is coming from out of the country there needs to be a 3rd party that gets the packages from the Port to the USPS hub, they don’t do it until they have a certain number of packages built up. That’s why sometimes packages come in days, some take months.
I get that, have ordered dozens of times from overseas. But, I am not really concerned with the inital customs clearing and handoff to the postal service. I am most concerned that the package has spent a week within 160 miles of my home and still I have no delivery estimate and no true handoff to USPS.
When the PMG said that mail would be intentionally slowed down and prices would go up to reward USPS for the slowdown… I knew we were in trouble. This normally would have been a 2-4 day transport from LA to middle Illinois. But that all changed in early October.
I know, I am just bitching… but, we have had one of the most awesome nationwide postage system for years. Now in 3-4 months that has been taken care of…
If USPS is not having staffing issues then why do I keep getting cards in the mail advertising that they are hiring? By my observation most of my packages have been stalled at sorting facilities. Almost like there is a lot to sort and not enough people to sort it…
Republicans have been trying to dismantle USPS for decades. No, not conjecture, known fact. They HATE mail-in voting, too ‘democratic’.
DeJoy is a hand picked destroyer sent in to finish the job off. He made great inroads on this task.
Why that man has not been prosecuted for interfering with the US mail AND an election is beyond me.
I doubt it will ever become normal again. Even USPS priority packages from MD to IL now seem to take 5-7 days as well, have had a couple of them. Not sure what value they now have in my mind. I owned and ran a small nursery of a few years, for about 4 months of the year I was shipping 30+ USPS priority boxes a week, none lost and average of 3 days anywhere in the US.
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