For Tonia Morrell, the U.S. mail is a lifeline.
But the 51-year-old disabled woman living on Springfield’s north side is finding that lifeline is becoming frayed. For the past three months, her Social Security check has arrived several days late.
“I’ve called down there to the post office and said, ‘Hey, I’m looking for my Social Security check that should be here by now.’ And I’ve been told, ‘Well, it’s not here.’ It isn’t there? So, why isn’t it in my mailbox? Because the federal government isn’t going to sit there and go, ‘Oh, I forgot to mail your check.’ You know?”
She is not alone. A shortage of letter carriers is causing mail to be delivered late, and on some days, not at all to certain addresses.
Chad Ludwig, president of the Springfield-area branch of the National Association of Letter Carriers, said carriers are working hard but just can’t keep up with the demand – particularly during the holiday season.
“We’re just not getting enough (job) applicants,” he said. “We only get a handful of applicants and not everybody makes it. It is long hours. It is very labor intensive – hard on the body. You’re out in all the elements, up and down stairs and whatnot. So, it’s not for everybody.”
In a social media response to an Illinois Times inquiry, Stormy Zwiefel of Sherman said she has recently gone three days without any mail service. Others responding said mail is often delivered as late as 8 p.m.
“There’s only so many bodies to cover the routes,” Ludwig said. “If you don’t have enough bodies you have to split the routes and then people carry them after they carry their own assignment. You just do the best you can to try to get it all out. Some days you come up short. I’m not seeing mail not being delivered very often. It’s just later at times.”
Ludwig said the nature of what is being delivered has changed over the years.
“The mail mix is different today. When I first started, it was a different time. There was much, much more mail and much less packages,” he said.
The change in what is being delivered has sparked concern that Amazon deliveries may be taking priority over other mail.
Mail carriers in northern Minnesota recently staged a symbolic strike outside a post office, protesting the heavy workloads and long hours caused by the arrival of thousands of Amazon packages. The Washington Post reported that the U.S. Postal Service ordered employees not to blame Amazon for late mail deliveries.
“The Postal Service does not prioritize the delivery of packages from Amazon or other customers,” Timothy Norman, Illinois spokesman for the service, told IT.
Ludwig agreed, saying, “There’s just not enough people applying for jobs and we’re not getting people to stick around. We are struggling to get help. As far as Amazon goes, nothing’s really changed. It’s not anything to do with that.”
In a statement to IT, U.S. Rep. Nikki Budzinski, D-Springfield, said, “I’m concerned by issues with USPS delivery times that have been impacting folks in our communities. Even small delays in mail services can have huge impacts on our families. My team has been in contact with USPS about these issues and our Illinois team has worked with constituents on dozens of USPS-related case requests over the past year. We’re continuing to monitor and investigate casework requests about delivery issues, and I encourage any constituent who is having trouble with mail delivery to contact my office for assistance.”
Jonathan Eberle, a spokesman for U.S. Rep. Mary Miller, R-Oakland, added the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas is the busiest season for the postal service.
“We want to ensure the USPS is accounting for the needs of rural communities because we rely heavily on USPS, especially seniors,” he said.
Morrell, who has been receiving her Social Security checks late in the mail, said it has a domino effect on her finances.
“It’s not just an inconvenience,” she said. “We’ve got bills that have to be paid on time – especially rent. And when you’re not paying your rent on time, then you’re getting charged for late rent, all because the mail carrier doesn’t want to bring the mail or misses the mail or whatever the case may be.”
Scott Reeder, a staff writer for Illinois Times, can be reached at sreeder@illinoistimes.com.
This article appears in Funeral home failures.
I live in Menard County where the postal service closed our post office. That added the village residents to the rural carrier’s responsibility. Previous, most residents picked up their mail at the post office. This also provided a center of communication and socialization for community members. I always had rural delivery where I live. Now, our delivery is very late. We either risk the traffic getting the mail on a state highway after dark, or wait for the next day. The service is now later than ever, and we’ve begun to miss deliveries. My belief is this is a result of the mess the politicians have made in attempting to privatize the service. The current postal system governing board needs to have the vacant positions filled and the current postmaster general replaced. Congressional generated requirements that have forced rates up in order to force privatization need to be removed. Contact your congressional delegation. Please.
Forty years ago someone tried to start a local mail delivery business. They were stopped by the government saying they could not compete for business with the U.S. Government. What happened to free enterprise? We need that competition badly now. Any takers out there?
Comparison – a 10 pound box shipped Priority Mail from Central IL to Southern Wisconsin via the U.S. Post office took 12 days to be delivered. A similar weight/sized box sent from Central IL to the EXACT same location via UPS Ground took 2 days. 🤔 USPS is having MAJOR issues…
The USPS annex is my area is toxic. I know someone that worked there for 2 months and they left. They hire people as part time or as needed and work them 6 days a week 10/12 hours a day. The one day they have off, they are being called at home to come in and work. The full time carriers do their assigned route and come back to sit and gossip. They do not offer to help and rack up the overtime pay by just sitting there. The supervisors treat the new employees horribly and berate them all the time. There was a new carrier that didn’t want to deliver the mail so they just shove it into whatever mailbox they came to. A abandoned property had a mailbox full of mail for different addresses because that carrier decided to shove it all in that mailbox instead of actually delivering it. People can only take so much. Who wants to work for a company that works you to death, the pay is crap and the supervisors treat you like you are their personal punching bag.