US Postal Service in Northern Ohio delivered less than a third of mail on time the week before Christmas

CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOIO) - The Northern Ohio district of the U.S. post office delivered less than a third of first class mail on time the week before Christmas, according to data provided by the post office to Congress.

The data shows that the post office in Northern Ohio experienced a significant drop in the share of first-class mail delivered on time in the weeks leading up to the holiday.

The mid-November about 80% of first-class mail was being delivered on time. By the third week in December, that rate had dropped to 28.8%.

That caused problems for people trying to send Christmas cards and packages and pay bills.

“I had a lot of issues with the holiday mail. It took forever for them to mail me my holiday presents and my checks,” said Bertice Pratt.

Post offices around the United States were overwhelmed this holiday season. Northern Ohio had the second lowest delivery rate in the country.

“Trying to mail in your bills and paying your bills through the mail, I’m worried. I’m concerned,” said Pamela Dawson.

A post office spokesperson released a statement regarding the delays:

The Postal Service delivered a record amount of packages this holiday season in the midst of the pandemic, which significantly impacted our workforce availability. Capacity challenges with airlifts and trucking for moving this historic volume of mail also led to temporary delays. These challenges were felt by shippers across the board. We are proud of the hard work and dedication of our employees and continue to work around the clock to deliver all packages and mail entered into our system, including returns. We regret all service problems experienced by our customers and thank them for their continued support and understanding.

Frustrated customers have heard many of these reasons since the delays began. Now they’re just looking for the problem to be resolved.

“I hope by next year, they do something better than what they doing,” said Pratt.

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