Residents decry widespread mail delays

Mar. 28—It was concerning enough when a debit card or letter didn't show up, but when his VA medication began arriving late, Austin Goacher knew he couldn't rely on the mail as a lifeline.

"That's medication that I take weekly that I have to take every week," the Elwood, Kansas, resident and retired Marine Corps veteran said. "There have been times where it's just easier for me to drive down to the hospital and get them from the pharmacy than it is to have to wait for them to come in the mail."

Goacher has had his medication delivered through the U.S. Postal Service for the last 14 years without issues until recently. He and his wife first noticed a rise in delays with mail delivery eight months ago, issues that persist today when on multiple occasions medications were late, sometimes by as much as seven to 10 days. Sometimes, he said, they'll find medication delivered blocks away from their address.

Mail delays have impacted other crucial areas like utility bills for their sewer. Sometimes a bill hasn't shown up at all. He's reached out to Elwood city officials and confirmed that his address on file is correct and the bill was sent out.

"I've lived in different parts of the country, especially when I was on duty ... I've never had issues like this," Goacher said.

From St. Joseph to Elwood and other cities across Missouri and Kansas, residents and small businesses are raising the alarm about significant and widespread delays in mail delivery through the U.S. Postal Service.

Since last September, the on-time delivery rate for first-class mail has declined by nearly 30% across Missouri and Kansas according to Postal Service performance data.

For inbound and outbound deliveries, first-class mail arrived on time just 59% of the time in February. It marked the fifth straight month of declining on-time delivery rates from a high of around 90% in September 2023. The rate has improved slightly to 68% in March but remains 18% lower than the same period in 2023. The figure is far from the 92% on-time target rate the postal service set out to accomplish in 2024.

By comparison, in the network region of Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota, nearly 82% of mail has been delivered on time through the first quarter of 2024.

Numerous customers are receiving important bills close to the due date and scrambling to get them returned in time. Others are sending payments in the mail only to find out they're on the hook for late payment fees. The issues have impacted municipalities that collect payments as well.

"There's been a couple times they have not picked up our letters. And I know I got it out there in time," Wathena resident and longtime business owner Jerry McKernan said. "It was in the mailbox on a Friday and it didn't get picked up until Monday. And I had to pay a $35 fine to the credit card."

In a statement to News-Press NOW, USPS spokesman Mark Inglett said that "significant" staffing availability issues and transportation disruptions are impacting USPS operations in the Kansas City metro market, which includes St. Joseph and cities across the area.

Major disruptions to various surface transfer centers were spurred by the sudden bankruptcy of one of their largest transportation contractors. That forced an acceleration of a previously planned move to insourced transportation operations — which typically takes months — resulting in the shutdown of major transfer facilities.

The transportation changes were significant, forcing USPS to take on an additional 5,000 truckloads of mail and packages a day. The issues have put significant pressure on transfer center workers and carriers.

"We are taking action to resolve these issues including dispatching additional resources to Kansas City from around the region and the country to help restore local service as quickly as possible," Inglett said in an email statement.

The U.S. Postal Service reported a net income loss of more than $6 billion for fiscal year 2023, the third year in its 10-year plan to boost profitability and improve processing, transportation and delivery networks by investing $40 billion in its network. Plans include investments to upgrade facilities in the Kansas City metro area network.

At its height in 1999, the U.S. postal service employed nearly 797,795 workers according to USPS data going back to 1926. By 2010, the number of employees fell to 583,908. With more than 150 million Americans to deliver to on average each year, 525,469 people were employed by the agency in 2023.

Mail delivery issues have become so widespread that three Missouri lawmakers, Rep. Sam Graves, R-Mo., Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, D-Mo., and Rep. Mark Alford, R-Mo., introduced bipartisan legislation in March to give customers a way to hold USPS accountable for late fees caused by the agency.

The bill, called the "Pony Up Act" would enable anyone who incurred a fee due to the late delivery of a bill to file a claim for a repayment. Filing for the repayment would occur online through a portal, in person or at any post office.

"People are getting hammered with late fees, cancellation notices, whatever the case may be," Graves told News-Press NOW. "If they're going to be responsible for everybody getting their mail late, then they're going to have to help people out."

According to the bill, "late delivery" is established when someone receives a bill in the mail less than six days from the date of payment and USPS receives the original mail containing notice of the bill no fewer than 12 days from the payment due date. For someone sending payment, mail is considered late if it was sent out by someone five days or more from the due date but was still delivered late, resulting in a fee or fine.

Graves said nearly every single member in the Senate and House is hearing from constituents about issues with mail delivery. Even he received a recent electric bill and a corresponding late notice on the same day.

"It's bad management. That's what it is. And it crosses over administrations. This isn't a Republican administration or Democrat administration thing. They just cannot get their act together," Graves said. "They're set to lose another $6.5 billion in fiscal year '24."

Graves and a host of other lawmakers have raised concerns for years about the performance of the Postal Service and Postmaster General Louis DeJoy. Including calling on USPS in January to halt price increases on stamps, the agency's fourth rate increase in the last 18 months.

"A lot of folks, too, unfortunately, are taking it out on their mail delivery person. They're not the problem. The problem is, is the management in D.C.," Graves said. "That's where it comes down to. And they will not take responsibility for this. It's just constantly excuse after excuse after excuse."

St. Joseph resident and artist Jill Frakes relies on the postal service for the distribution of items for her online business. She creates and sells personalized items for people across the country who have lost loved ones or for special occasions and holidays.

"I used to be able to tell a client that was in Olathe ... 'You should probably get this tomorrow or the next day at the latest.' Now, I'm telling people five to seven days and I'm hoping it gets there in that timeframe," she said.

Frakes has worked for years to earn a spot in the top 2% of sellers on the marketplace website Etsy. Extended delays and the cost of replacing missing items have been a growing source of frustration.

While she's thankful many of her customers have been understanding about mailing issues, others have lashed out with negative reviews that compromise her top seller position. The reviews are especially frustrating for Frakes because they're the result of something that's out of her control.

"I would probably have all five-star reviews because most of my reviews that are, you know, two or three stars have something to say about the delay in shipping," she said.

In one case, a package she tracked that was addressed to Arkansas went to New Jersey and then Tennessee before making it to its destination in the neighboring state. However, the customer was still upset with Frakes and left her a negative review because of the delay.

Her only alternatives are to pay a higher cost for priority mail or use another shipping company, something she doesn't think is fair to the customer or her business to have to pay extra for.

Frakes, McKernan and Goacher are one of thousands of area residents left wondering exactly when deliveries will return to the consistency they remember.

"They have got to understand that people are depending on them to get their mail on time," Graves said. "That's one of the things that the government is actually supposed to do and are supposed to do well, is deliver the mail."