Late mail deliveries worry Tempe postal customers

Some Tempe residents have to choose between making a nightly trip to the mailbox in their pajamas or waiting to pick up their mail the next morning. “It’s gotten really bad,” said Melba Terry, a Tempe resident who has lived near McClintock and Broadway roads for 33 years.

“Every day it comes later and later, and I either have to get out of bed to get the mail or else let it wait in the box overnight and get it in the morning.”

U.S. Postal Service officials blame the delivery delays on the high volume of election mail and a spike in the turnover rate among Tempe mail carriers. Although the postal service has received some customer complaints, local officials said they are working to train new employees and get back on track before the holiday rush.

“I’m very dissatisfied,” Terry said. “I think that it’s crappy to keep raising postage while this is going on.”

She said she first started noticing mail arriving in the evenings a couple of weeks ago. She said she worries that the delays could become a security problem for the large number of retired residents in her neighborhood who receive Social Security or dividend checks in the mail.

Terry said she has asked her carrier about the problem.

“My carrier says that she has such a large route that she asks her brother, who is also a mail carrier, to help her with it,” she said. “I almost didn’t believe it. My carrier is very efficient, and I don’t think that she should have to work from dawn until dusk.”

Mail carriers typically work an eight-hour day, five days a week, said U.S. Postal Service spokesman Peter Hass. The routes of individual mail carriers vary, depending on the distance they need to travel and the number of boxes they are responsible for.

“Our basic intent is to have the mail delivered by 5 p.m. and to have the carrier back by 6 p.m.,” Hass said. “Of course, sometimes that doesn’t always happen and carriers need to double up or work overtime.”

Hass said longtime employment is the norm in the postal service, but the Tempe offices have hired 21 new mail carriers in the last two months. Overall, he said the postal service has hired about 600 people across the state since the summer.

“It’s the biggest time of year for us,” Hass said. “The election season really generated a pretty high volume of mail, and there’s a learning curve when you are bringing on a large number of new employees.”

Tempe resident Jim Meeker said he has seen mail trucks driving around his neighborhood delivering mail when he walks his dog between 6:30 p.m. and 7 p.m. He still hadn’t received his mail when he left for the Barbara Streisand concert after 6 p.m. Thursday, but he said the delays haven’t been giving him any problems.

“It’s certainly very unusual,” he said. “But the mail delivery is very good, and I always receive everything that I expect to.”

When Meeker moved to his Tempe home almost three years ago, he installed a drop slot for security so that he does not need to use a mailbox. “It could be a problem for others that don’t have a mail setup like we have,” Meeker said.

To get ready for the holiday season, the postal service will also hire temporary workers to help with the large influx of Christmas cards, gifts and packages. Traditionally, the heaviest mailing day of the year is the Monday before Christmas, which this year falls on Dec. 18.

“We’ll be going full-bore into the holiday season, and we have been trying our best to staff appropriately,” Hass said. “After the holiday, you can expect things to get back to normal.”

Hass encourages residents to contact the postal service with any concerns about late mail by calling (800) 275-8777.