More US Post Office news. Louis DeJoy’s plan creates havoc in Houston. I have been watching the unfolding of Louis Dejoy’s arrogance in the transitional plan of the USPS to something more efficient and profitable. It has become a pitiful comedy of errors and arrogance by Louis in implementing his master plan. He still fails to recognize the U.S. Post Offices are not a commercial enterprises meant to be profitable. The of the Post Office is in being able to deliver the mail to every citizen in the US regardless of whether it is in metropolitan Houston or Loving County, Texas with a population of 64. The latter being just as important as the former in mail delivery. DeJoy does not get it and never will. The former and the most distant person on
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More US Post Office news. Louis DeJoy’s plan creates havoc in Houston. I have been watching the unfolding of Louis Dejoy’s arrogance in the transitional plan of the USPS to something more efficient and profitable.
It has become a pitiful comedy of errors and arrogance by Louis in implementing his master plan. He still fails to recognize the U.S. Post Offices are not a commercial enterprises meant to be profitable. The of the Post Office is in being able to deliver the mail to every citizen in the US regardless of whether it is in metropolitan Houston or Loving County, Texas with a population of 64. The latter being just as important as the former in mail delivery.
DeJoy does not get it and never will. The former and the most distant person on a route are just as important as the one next door in a city.
Chaos plagues USPS operations in Houston area, Linn’s Stamp News, Allen Abel
In a rare display of bipartisan comity, Republican and Democratic politicians in the Houston area have joined forces against the United States Postal Service, which they hold responsible for more than two months of lost packages, delayed deliveries, helpless customers and an infuriating disinclination to speak the truth about what actually was going on.
According to local news reports, thousands of Texans have been affected since December 2023 by cascading equipment failures and staffing shortfalls at USPS processing plants in North Houston and Missouri City.
The most damaging episode, and the least farcical for beleaguered shippers and recipients, was an attempt by the Postal Service to install a new sorting machine at North Houston that proved to be too big for the building.
“The new sorter didn’t fit into the facility, and the old sorters had already been taken out to make space for the new equipment,” the Houston Chronicle reported Jan. 31, citing a meeting between Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, and senior postal and union officials.
“They were left without a lot of capacity to process parcels there due to whatever caused them to put that machine in there without knowing that it did not fit,” the Chronicle quoted National Association of Postal Supervisors executive vice president Chuck Mulidore as saying.
“Mulidore said he had personally never heard previously of a machine not fitting inside a facility,” the Chronicle reported.
“This might be somewhat different than what the Postal Service may or may not say but our folks on the ground tell us it was just a combination of events,” Mulidore said.
For postal customers and for members of Congress from both parties, the problem was that the USPS was not saying anything of substance at all as weeks passed and complaints multiplied.
The situation became so dire that, when Houston TV station KHOU set up a special email address specifically for grievances about delivery delays and missing mail, it received more than 5,000 messages in the first week.
“I cannot tell you how many lost and missing orders we have suffered in the past few months,” Rita Dumaine, vice president of Sam Houston Philatelics, told Linn’s, to cite just one example of the toll on retail businesses.
“We sent a priority letter to Canada right after Thanksgiving, it finally showed up in Germany and was delivered shortly after Christmas,” Dumaine said. It’s absolutely ridiculous.”
“Then there are the first-class letters that are not delivered,” she said. “At $25 for a federal [duck] stamp, it is costing us a bloody fortune to duplicate all these orders.”
“I would join a class action lawsuit if someone started one!” Dumaine said.
“I know they’re stonewalling people,” said Rep. Randy Weber, R-Texas. “I’ve asked for a meeting but they can’t meet because they’re in ‘training’. We still don’t seem to have answers on what they plan to do to ensure folks that they actually get their packages.”
“This is not a secret society!” Green exclaimed. “This is not esoteric! It should be known to all how it functions!”
“Our constituents have made their voices heard loud and clear: USPS has failed them,” Rep. Sylvia Garcia, D-Texas, said. “This is unacceptable, and we will continue to work on this matter until reliable mail delivery is once again the norm.”
“We will always be committed to ensure that our essential services are delivered in an efficient, timely and seamless operation to our constituents,” Garcia said.
In early February, Weber and Rep. Morgan Luttrell, R-Texas, attempted to meet with postal officials at the facility in Missouri City, Texas.
What happened, according to a congressional staffer who was present and who spoke with Linn’s, was that “they said, ‘We’re congressmen’ and a lady came out and said, ‘I’ll get you a phone number and y’all could set up a meeting.’ They said, ‘We’re here now and we’d like to speak to the postmaster’ and after another five or eight minutes a different guy came back and he was like ‘I don’t know his name.’ They waited another 15 minutes and no one came back at all.”
On Feb. 2, the congressmen finally heard from the USPS in the form of a statement attributed to Peter R. Pastre, USPS vice president for government relations and public policy.
“There were several causes to the delays in Houston,” the statement said. “Some were in our control, and some were not. The confluence of them, however, coupled with higher package volume, resulted in the problems that we have been working diligently to fix.
“First, there were very disappointing employee attendance issues, which were not appropriately and immediately addressed by management. That is being corrected. We also installed new sorting equipment to add capacity at the facility, and as can happen with any new machines, there were equipment and transition failures that needed to be addressed.”
Meanwhile, another Texas Democrat was warning that the chaos in the Houston region is likely to spread beyond the Lone Star State.
“The rest of the country may soon see similar issues,” Rep. Lizzie Fletcher, D-Texas, told KHOU.
“We’re on the early end of this,” Fletcher said. “The North Houston and Missouri City facilities are kind of in the first round of changes so this is a problem for us and could be a problem for Americans across the country if it continues to be implemented in this way.”