Good afternoon, all!
On January 5, I received a Christmas card (First Class mail) that was postmarked in this same city on December 13. I have noted over the past few months that mail has become slower and slower here. Some of that, as has been widely and credibly reported, has a political basis. Budget and overtime cutbacks slow service times. Other slowdowns may be associated with holiday volume increases, hangover from postal voting (Colorado overwhelmingly votes by mail), and other unknown factors.
It is my opinion that the USPS does an exemplary job of delivering the mail quickly and economically, especially given the circumstances it finds itself in. Frankly, the phrase "lost in the mail" is – in my experience – almost never true, especially given the sheer volume of mail pieces processed every day.
Periodical mail (I used to edit a magazine with about 70,000 circ.) is not a high priority for the USPS as far as service time, even in the best of circumstances. It is handled sort of on a priority basis. That is, if volume is low, even in a specific area, periodicals get processed and transported rapidly. When volume is high, the opposite happens. In my experience, it was not surprising to find that someone across the country received his copy in just a few days, while someone in the same city might have to wait three weeks.
If the USPS had the turnaround time of the average clock or watch repair shop, it would have been out of business long ere since.
I am a subscriber to the old DVD version of Netflix, because most of the films that interest me are not available via streaming. Before midsummer, I used to be able to drop a viewed DVD into the mail on Monday or Tuesday, and receive the next item in queue before Saturday. Now, it can take upwards of 10 days for my next disk to show up.
Best regards!
Tim Orr
