Amazon packages reportedly overwhelm small post offices, delaying other mail

Amazon packages are overwhelming mail carriers in Minnesota, causing delays of other mail, according to news reports and complaints from a US senator. Amazon packages are being prioritized ahead of non-Amazon mail, postal workers have said.

Similar complaints have been made elsewhere, but reports suggest the problems are particularly severe in Bemidji, Minnesota, where carriers recently held early morning protests before their shifts began. A Bemidji Pioneer article on November 15 said that “rural mail carriers stood outside of the Bemidji Post Office before sunrise Monday and Tuesday carrying signs and protesting what they describe as unsustainable working conditions and the prioritization of Amazon deliveries over actual mail.”

The US Postal Service has been delivering Amazon packages for years, but this month’s protest reportedly came in response to local implementation of a new agreement with Amazon at the beginning of November.

The Bemidji Pioneer quoted longtime mail carrier Dennis Nelson as saying, “We’re being forced to work 12-hour days, six days a week. All of our days off have been canceled by the district manager. They’ve even gone so far as to say they will not honor sick leave. On top of that, we’ve been told Amazon is now our priority, that Amazon packages are the most important thing we do, the mail is secondary.”

Nelson said the Amazon rush has prevented timely delivery of other mail. “Mail isn’t being delivered on many routes because we’re spending 12 hours a day just delivering Amazon packages,” he was quoted as saying. “If you were to look [in the post office] right now, there’s probably five or six routes where mail wasn’t delivered yesterday because the packages had to go out.”

When contacted by Ars today, a USPS spokesperson denied that the agency prioritizes Amazon packages. “We do not prioritize Amazon packages. We deliver packages and mail in an integrated network,” the spokesperson wrote in an email.

US senator blames postmaster general

US Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.) sent a letter about the mail problems to US Postmaster General Louis DeJoy on November 22. Smith’s letter said the “situation is particularly acute in Bemidji right now,” but that it affects multiple parts of Minnesota.

“I write regarding reports across Minnesota that the Postal Service’s service agreement with Amazon is interfering with timely deliveries and stretching the agency’s already-overburdened workers too thin,” Smith wrote. “As Postmaster General, you are responsible for ensuring that the Postal Service meets its service standards, and it is clear right now that things are not working as they should. Entering into contracts that your system cannot support is a breach of your responsibilities.”

A Washington Post article today described “chaos” at the Bemidji post office. “Mail is getting backed up, sometimes for days, leaving local residents waiting for checks, credit card statements, health insurance documents and tax rebates,” the article said. “Routes meant to take eight or nine hours are stretching to 10 or 12. At least five carriers have quit, and the post office has banned scheduled sick days for the rest of the year, carriers say.”

Bemidji Mayor Jorge Prince was quoted as saying that mail carriers have “expressed a lot of concern about the volume of work.”

The USPS, which is funded by its own revenue, reported a net loss of $6.5 billion in the fiscal year that ended September 30. In a November 14 speech, DeJoy said the Postal Service expects to lose money again in fiscal 2024 “despite substantial planned reductions in our cost of operations and growth in our package revenues.”

The USPS has had a deal with Amazon since 2013, and Amazon in recent years “has increasingly come to rely on postal carriers to make ‘last-mile’ deliveries in harder-to-reach rural locations,” The Washington Post noted.

“In bigger cities, Amazon has its own distribution network, which takes some of the pressure off the post office,” the Post article noted. But the Postal Service’s Amazon deal “has caused problems” in rural areas where Amazon is less likely to have its own drivers.

Problems in other states

In the state of Washington, residents of the San Juan Islands also accused Amazon of overwhelming post offices, according to a Fox 13 news article last week. “Customers from Friday Harbor to Lopez Village are complaining that mail has been severely delayed as local post offices are overwhelmed,” the article said.

The Fox 13 article suggests that Amazon started relying more on local post offices in early November, echoing the complaints in Bemidji. “In downtown Seattle, Amazon trucks deliver parcels straight to doorsteps. However, in a remote location like the San Juans, this is not the case. The company relies on USPS and UPS to make the rounds,” the article said.

Marc Franklin of Aeronautical Services, a local UPS contractor that delivers packages in the San Juan Islands, told Fox 13 that his company suddenly saw a huge drop in package volume on November 1. “Franklin is pointing the finger at Amazon. He believes the tech giant is cutting corners by routing more packages to the local post office instead of through UPS,” the article said.

The Washington Post article about Bemidji also cites a diversion of packages from UPS to postal carriers. “Carriers who previously had delivered dozens of small parcels a day plus paper mail suddenly had to deliver between 300 and 500 boxes that they said had previously been handled by UPS,” the Post wrote. “One mail carrier said his mail truck was so full of packages he could barely see out the left window. Some boxes were so big they couldn’t fit into mail vehicles. Those were stored on-site for customer pickup in an area that soon was overflowing.”

In 2020, carriers in Portland, Maine, said Amazon packages were being prioritized at the expense of other mail. “The delivery of first-class and priority mail is being intentionally delayed so that letter carriers can prioritize the delivery of Amazon packages, according to letter carriers at the Portland post office and an official complaint lodged with the Office of Inspector General,” the Portland Press Herald reported at the time.

Portland carriers renewed their complaints during a demonstration in front of a post office in December 2022. The USPS Office of Inspector General later found widespread delivery delays in Maine but blamed the problem on inadequate staffing and training. The Office of Inspector General reportedly said that its auditors did not find evidence of the Postal Service prioritizing packages over other types of mail.

Staff shortage “exacerbated” by Amazon packages

Sen. Smith’s letter to DeJoy last week said she has raised delivery concerns previously and that she is disappointed the problems have not been fixed. Smith urged DeJoy to “take immediate steps to address this situation and prioritize the Postal Service’s service standards and the safety of your workers.”

For the last several holiday seasons, Smith wrote, “Minnesotans have experienced mail delays associated with workforce shortages and severe weather, situations exacerbated by the pressure to process and deliver Amazon packages. I have raised these concerns with you and asked you to ensure that post offices and processing facilities in Minnesota are adequately staffed before the holiday influx, and yet again I am hearing from constituents and postal workers about inconsistent deliveries and post offices overwhelmed by Amazon parcels.”