My Love for the USPS is Being Tested!

Rampant dismantling of our postal service underway.

Diane Nilan
PEARL STREET
Published in
4 min readMay 4, 2024

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stop sign in front of US Post Office building
STOP making destructive changes to the US Post Office! Photo by Diane Nilan

OK, maybe this is a first world problem. But I’d bet my lunch money that I’m not the only one going postal over the increasingly rampant dysfunction of this once-respected government institution, our post office.

I’ve loved the United States Postal Service as long as I have been receiving mail. I even did a presentation on how cool they were when I was in college, based on an onsite visit that let me see how mail was processed.

When Louis DeJoy was appointed postmaster in 2020 by the previous White House occupant, my political bent caused me to fear that the end was near. The opportunities for his nefarious actions to sabotage mail service were endless, especially with his power to thwart voting by mail. He’s inexplicably remained in his position since then.

Evidently others have finally paid attention to his shabby performance. At a recent Senate hearing, his Delivering for America plan came under attack by members of both parties. Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) accused DeJoy of actively harming the Postal Service and lawmakers blamed his DFA plan for “declining service, higher prices and lower mail service.” (Finally! Get rid of him!)

Here’s my beef.

I live in a rural area of North Carolina with limited shopping opportunities for my relatively simple essentials. I turn to big box retailers (ugh!), but when they don’t have what I need, I order online, like lots of people do.

For some reason, the normally predictable (even during Covid) order/shipping process has recently been upended. At least 2 of my orders this week have been returned. One more will hit the return chute on Monday. Two of these orders had previously been delivered by UPS or FedEx. For unknown reasons, they were shipped via USPS. And that’s where they hit the shipping wall.

I get tracking notices that packages are due to be delivered. Then, whoops, they’re being returned as undeliverable. Despite the correct address. WHAT??!!

Rules and Shipper Choices

As we know, USPS has rules. No liquids, no perishables, no hazardous materials…all of those restrictions we swear to when shipping packages at the post office. When a vendor decides to ship via USPS instead of the less-restrictive private companies, they need to follow the rules. Do they determine the shipper by what’s being shipped?

Evidently the protocol for how address are listed differ by what shipper is being used. The placement of the PO Box number above the street address, or below, depends on if USPS is being used or UPS/FedEx. Who knows this? If an ordinary person decided to ship me a gift or whatever, and they sent it to my street address via the previously dependable USPS, what, the package gets returned because the PO decided not to deliver? Someone has to pay for the package to be reshipped. Unnecessarily.

Wonder how folks in Cope, CO are coping with postal changes? Photo by Diane Nilan

Prior to this recent management change at our local PO, even if the PO Box wasn’t on the address, the letter would get placed into the box. Now, nope. According to a post office employee I spoke with, the new branch manager got word from the upper management that mail without the PO box listed was no longer to be sorted into the customer’s box. I guess that includes packages. I imagine they are returning more mail and packages than they’re delivering.

That will create havoc for the large number of visitors and seasonal residents who didn’t get the recent memo from the local PO manager. In my case, it’s inconvenience. In many other cases, the checks, legal notices, medicine, and other essentials returned will be catastrophic. The frontline employees are probably getting lambasted because of these returns, too.

It’s Personal

On personal level, this disruption of the relatively functional performance of the Post Office is creating a crisis of confidence. When I, a lifelong PO fan, have lost my patience with this venerable service, that’s an indication of system failure. I feel bad for the half-million or so civil servants demoralized by the deterioration of their employer.

The employees previously at our local PO were highly respected and appreciated. They recently bolted, tired of the growing dysfunction. DeJoy’s systemwide delivery changes have caused concerns about job stability and the PO is having problems filling positions.

The one-by-one destruction of once-reliable government entities may be inevitable, but I don’t think it has to be. We’ve let the foxes into the henhouse and they’re wreaking havoc while they can, and we’re paying attention to things like TikTok and a woman getting accidentally locked in a fast-food restroom.*

When the dust of my dismay settles, it’s about losing faith in a relatively reliable institution that has been around since the days of Ben Franklin. Thank you to the countless postal employees that tried to uphold the “motto” of the Post Office: Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.

So much for that standard.

*This story got a local news headline. The recent pillaging of our local health care system, with dozens of medical employees getting axed as yet another medical restructuring occurs, got crickets. Sigh.

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Diane Nilan
PEARL STREET

Founder/pres. HEAR US Inc., gives voice & visibility to homeless families & youth, ran shelters, advocate, filmmaker, author, 18 yrs. on US backroads. hearus.us