How many people use USPS and request package pickups only to have them never come?

[reelworks]

This has been going on for a while now, at least five years or so and its recently gotten worse.

I ship a lot of items at work, and every day over the last four or five weeks I've put in for a Priority or Ground Adv. pickup. 

9 times they've failed to show up for the packages, but I still got the email saying the package was picked up.  It delays the shipping by a day, sometimes the whole weekend if it happens on a Friday. 

We've had nothing but young drivers who don't wear a postal uniform driving the new small vans here. We lost the last permanent driver after he quit to go work construction somewhere back in 2021. Ever since its been someone different every day. Most look like teens fresh out of high school. 

They failed to stop for packages (too big to put in a mailbox), both Monday and Thursday this week and Tues and Sat last week. 

On top of that when they do pickup packages, they don't show a scan till the get to the regional center 40 miles away. They tell me the drivers 'scan every package' but the drivers say the managers tell them not to waste time scanning anything, get out and get back asap because they don't want to pay overtime. 

I cringe too when an item has to go south, I had one going to TX a while back that took 19 days to go from southern NJ to VA. Another sent to VA a week ago Monday is still in transit with the tracking stuck at the destination PO not showing delivered or any movement since Mon. the buyer said it doesn't alarm him any, he seemed used to it for some reason. 

What ever happened to "Rain, sleet, or snow" ? Its seems to have become "When we feel like it or get around to it, maybe."

[roccotacodad54]

   "What ever happened to "Rain, sleet, or snow" ? Its seems to have become "When we feel like it or get around to it, maybe."

   Unions and an all too common modern lack of work ethic. (No I'm not anti-union, just anti work ethic).

[reelworks]

I called the PO and was told by someone there that they're short of drivers and there's nothing they can do about it, then got hung up on. 

The regular mail truck came and went this morning, (they never come the same time day to day).

I called a contact I have higher up and they sent a truck to get the packages 20 minutes later. 

A local supervisor called to tell me 'my call wasn't necessary, and that I should call them first. 

I told the woman that I did call and got fed the line about there being no drivers. The driver who came out said he waited for 8 years to get the job and was currently working 28 miles from home because they said there were no positions open here. 

The concerning part is that every time it happens I get the email saying the pickup was completed. 

Sooner or later someone is going to use that against them . The packages I ship are all insured, they are giving me a receipt for picking up packages that they never picked up. 

The guy who came out today was from a different area,  sent down from a larger depot for 7 packages, four from the last three days. 

The no uniform and no ID thing bothers me, you would think that they would require at least a hat and some sort of badge or name tag. The one kid that showed up here looked like some high school kid, if I didn't see the truck out front I would have thought he was just some kid off the street. 

[klhmdg]

I have only had 1 shipment not picked up in a year.

Every scheduled pick up is scanned at the door. 

Are you in NJ?  Only asking because 2 out of 3 packages sent to NJ in the last 2 months have arrived destroyed and USPS refused to pay insurance.  One package looked like it had been kicked from Indiana to NJ.

Im thinking its the POs there. Im to the point where I wish we could pick states not to ship to and may start taking the cancelation defect.

[tobaccocardyahoo]

It is a human problem and a management problem.

For the longest time, the only time we got a pickup was when the regular driver was off and they assigned a trainee from the training center at our PO to deliver. I would try to hold my shipments for the day the trainee came.

Somewhere along the line our driver got religion or was disturbed by the big sign I put out at the mailboxes. Never had a problem with the smaller packages which fit in the locked dropoff box in our lobby. I assume the lazy sob did not want to bend down.

[murphken]

I have been down this rabbit hole with my post office .  I have grown numb to this ongoing mess over the last several years.   

The post office is trying to do "more with less" just like any other business.  Finding a warm body to do manual labor is a problem in the US.   

Our full-time mail man will  pick up the packages and scan them.  Life is good in this scenario.  If a relief driver is delivering and picking-up, they sometimes have no clue what they are doing.  I hate coming home from a hard day's work and see the packages still sitting on my porch.   

I have one-day shipping on my listings and I am "top rated plus" for both US and Ebay International Sales.  If the package is not scanned at time of USPS acceptance and the package does not arrive in at the time interval shown on the listing, I have a possible late shipment. 

Getting a scan on Ground Advantage Packages is "hit and miss" as the package makes it's way to my buyers.  I need a scan on the day handing-off the packages to the USPS.

I take the packages to the post office kiosk and scan them. Now, what do I do with the scanned packages if the post office is closed?  For one month there was no handle on the Kiosk "Barrell" where you input the packages and say "good bye" to them.  I had to bring the packages to the post office during normal business hours.  Good News:  The Post Office just installed a new handle last week.  Yeah!