My tenant’s rent check took 12 days last month to go about 12 miles, verified by post mark. I guess they walked it from the mail box to my po box which by the way is in the mail sorting facility for this are.
On August 1st, as I did not want to deliver it in person, I mailed a book to a teacher who was literally 3.5 miles from the post office. Same zip code but in a residential, not commercial, neighborhood. Normally, a letter would be received overnight or second day in that situation. The snarling postal clerk asked if I wanted to send it “book / media rate”. I apparently saved two dollars by doing so and got a tracking slip. Mailed it on a Monday morning. It was delivered on Tuesday morning. Not on Tuesday, 2 August, but Tuesday, 16 August. I’m sure they just let it sit behind the counter for a couple of weeks.