Is your mail arriving after dark? USPS service cuts are to blame, watchdog says

Washington Post ^ | July 22, 2014 | Lisa Rein and Lynh Bui

[Second Amendment First]

Mail is being delivered after 5 p.m. almost 70 percent of the time to residents and businesses in the District and the Maryland suburbs in violation of U.S. Postal Service policy, an investigation released Tuesday found.

The number of letter carriers who are still on their routes after 5 p.m., even in the winter darkness, and the delayed delivery of letters and packages has grown so dramatically in recent years that the Capital District now ranks as the worst area in the country for late mail service, a report by Postal Service Inspector General David Williams concluded.

Northern Virginia also ranked in the top five areas of the U.S. where Americans received their mail late, auditors found.

Both regions were well above the national average for late mail delivery, which was 38 percent last year.

[ilovesarah2012]

You would think. I don’t care since I don’t get home from work until a little after 5 and it’s always bills anyway. And we get our mail at about 10 at work so you are right - someone has to get theirs early and someone has to get it late.

[Milton Miteybad]

Newman doesn’t deliver in the rain.

I'm pretty sure Newman moved down to western Harris County in Texas. Because we get mail delivery about three days a week. Maybe four days in some weeks. But if he tries to deliver it in the rain, our mail looks ends up looking like it spent three days in a mop bucket. That's assuming he doesn't drive over it with his truck, leaving muddy tire tracks all over my checks. So maybe taking rainy days off isn't such a bad idea for him.

[Pelham]

The postal service isn’t part of the budget. They have been funded out of postage revenue since Nixon’s administration.