Mail carriers in central Ohio say they're not to blame if your mail is late.
“I think we are getting a bad rap for no reason,” a Newark mail carrier said.
“I take pride in getting everything to everybody,” a Columbus mail carrier sad.
One of the biggest issues facing the United States Postal Service is delayed mail, something the President of the American Postal Workers Union says isn’t happening in Columbus as far as she can tell.
However, she says there are reasons why mail can be delayed.
“If the mail doesn't make it to the dock on time then you're waiting an extra day for your mail,” Jennifer Sigmon said.
That's because under the new postal inspectors directive "late trips are no longer authorized or accepted."
But that's not the only reason mail can be late. Turnover is another problem.
“They took away people so we don't have enough clerks to sort the mail," the Newark mail carrier said. “We have trouble keeping people I would say the people we bring in over 50% don't last six months."
“Short staffing is a huge problem and when you say no overtime that really adds to it,” Sigmon said.
Sources tell 10TV there's a blame game going on inside the postal service involving postal sorters against the trucking companies that deliver the mail to the sorting facilities.
A July audit highlighted the issue.
“From October 1, 2019, to March 31, 2020, the report found Columbus had the second-highest number (10,948) of contractors showing up late to deliver mail."
But investigators dug deeper and found "inadequate management oversight of mail processing dock operations caused inaccurate reporting of contractor failures for late trips."
Meaning, it wasn't the trucks that were late, instead, it was people handling the mail that made them late.
The report concluded: "dock expeditors incorrectly recorded the cause for late trips as contractor failure rather than attributing them to late processing and mail processing failures."
As for those who depend on the mail for their medications, the postal union says speak up.
“If your mail is being delayed especially for medication speak up. Don’t suffer in silence. Make a phone call to your postmaster or your congressmen, it helps,” Sigmon said.
During testimony Monday before House Democrats, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said, "I did not direct the removal of blue collection boxes or the removal of mail processing equipment. Second, I did not direct the cutback on hours at any of our postal offices, and finally, I did not direct the elimination or any cutback in overtime. I did, however, suspend these practices to remove any misperceptions about our commitment to delivering the nation's election mail."
10TV confirmed that eight mail sorting machines were removed from the Citygate sorting facility in northeast Columbus. We were told it was for lack of mail that needed sorting.