Packages are stacking up inside metro Detroit’s mail distribution center in Allen Park as the U.S. Postal Service struggles to keep up with the unprecedented amount of shipping during the coronavirus pandemic.
Through mid-December, parcel volume increased 15% nationwide compared to the same time last year. On-time delivery rates have declined to 86%, down from 93% at the beginning of the month, according to ShipMatrix, a software company that tracks shipments.
A WXYZ investigation found at least 50 tractor-trailers full of packages waiting to unload mail at the USPS Detroit Network Distribution Center (DNC) in Allen Park.
“It has mail from wall to wall,” American Postal Workers Union Detroit Local 295 President Keith Combs told WXYZ. “This is something that I have never seen in my 30 years of being a postal employee.”
Combs also blamed the delays on poor planning and restructuring under Postmaster General Louis DeJoy.