This is why your packages are still "in transit," and why it won't be helpful to call with your tracking number. USPS package volumes are up 30-40%. Staffing is short due to COVID cases and quarantines. The mail is simply backed up. Remember to thank your carriers! #USPSdelays

Adding to this: letters and flats that can pass through the automatic sorting machines are being processed at much faster rates than large packages, which is why you’re still getting cards and catalogs but not your packages.

Some of those mail sorting machines were disassembled and removed from distribution centers this summer thanks to Postmaster DeJoy. DeJoy also changed the “every piece of mail, every day” operating policy of the USPS.

Instead, DeJoy removed overtime and told carriers to delay mail from their routes if they were not able to complete the route without overtime. Carriers had routinely worked 10-12 hours to deliver every piece of mail on their routes. Mail started to back up.

So we have an existing higher volume of daily backlog at many stations going into the holiday season, as a starting point. Then, what happened in nearly every community going into late fall? COVID spiked.

This hit USPS as hard as the rest of the country (and in some cases, maybe worse - there are anonymous complaints from distribution centers and local offices around the county about lack of social distancing/mask enforcement and not being informed when coworkers tested positive)

At the same time, a solid proportion of the US population decided to skip in-person family gatherings and retail shopping (a smart decision). They turned to online shopping for holiday gifts as well as basic necessities, increasing the volume flowing into the USPS system.

Meanwhile, UPS and FedEx, seeing the predicted volume increases, decided to cap their shipping capacity for major retailers. Where did the overflow go? USPS. https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/02/business/ups-shipping-ecommerce/index.html

USPS also handles about 30-40% of Amazon’s packages, delivering packages in areas that aren’t served by Amazon delivery or aren’t economical for UPS/FedEx (so mostly Amazon’s rural package delivery). This is a high volume of packages, as Amazon represents 40% of online retail.

So where does that put us in December? Spiking COVID cases in distribution centers - as well as associated quarantines by coworkers - means that many of these hubs are extremely short staffed. Many workers are being asked to work 6-7 days a week, including planned days off.

These systems are complicated and take training. USPS hires seasonal workers, but they can’t hire their way out of unexpected holiday staff shortages due to COVID, substantially increased package volume, and a series of systemic inefficiencies introduced by DeJoy.

Tl;dr: your package is probably sitting in a trailer or a hallway in a distribution center. It will be late. If it’s something essential like medication, reorder with express shipping, which has a guaranteed delivery date.

Please do not harass your local carrier about the mail delays. Calling USPS with your tracking number will not make your package suddenly reappear in the system (this strategy works when 95% of packages are delivered on time, but not in the current crush). Be patient.

And finally: please don’t take this as a reason to switch to UPS/FedEx. The systemic inefficiencies at USPS have been intentionally introduced by bad-faith legislation and administrators. Mail delivery - as we’ve learned - is an essential service and we need to #SavetheUSPS