Richmond Office Source of Continued Mail Problems

By Desiree Parker Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Excessive delayed mail in Richmond's staging area, photo from a recent audit of the office.

James City County has sent another letter of complaint to the Postmaster General about consistently slow mail delivery in the area. The problem originates in Richmond, which, according to a recent government audit, has the highest percentage of delayed mail compared to similar-sized facilities.

The county sent a letter last week, the second this year, expressing the “continued frustration” of the Board of Supervisors. County Administrator Robert Middaugh wrote in the letter that magazines, catalogs and promotional mail have been arriving late for several years. Invitations and political mail have also been arriving late, he said.

Board Chairman Mary Jones said, “Citizens depend on reliable mail delivery,” and that the delay stems from problems in Sandston, the Richmond-area distribution center. “For businesses that use the mail to promote their services, it is especially frustrating and affects their profitability,” she said.

Board Member Jim Kennedy said during the 2008 election, some of his campaign mailers arrived after the election; this year, some Republican candidates’ mailers also arrived significantly late, he noted.

According to a recent audit of the Richmond distribution center by the Office of the Inspector General of the U.S. Postal Service, the Richmond office had the highest percentage of delayed mail compared to similar-sized facilities. (Read the report in its entirety here).

According to the report, the Richmond office “experienced difficulties with the timely processing of mail” in fiscal year 2010 and the first quarter of 2011 that led to “significant mail delays… and service declines.”

Delayed mail volume at the Richmond location increased significantly over the last couple of years, the audit found. Delayed mail volume rose from more than 22.6 million pieces in the first quarter of 2009 to approximately 54.2 million pieces in the first quarter of 2011. This was a 139 percent increase, while similar-size facilities decreased delays by 3 percent and all national facilities decreased by 2 percent during the same period.

The main causes for the excessive delayed mail in Richmond were “inadequate staffing and supervision, low mail throughput on machines, failure to consistently color-code arriving mail, and inaccurate identification and reporting of delayed mail,” along with mail damage from poorly packaged mail, according to the audit.

Management has started taking corrective action, including filling vacant positions and appointing a new plant manager as well as creating a team to address problems and developing schedules and tracking systems.

The Inspector General’s office will be monitoring the issue, the report noted.

U.S. Postal Service spokeswoman Freda Sauter told WYDaily that “the Richmond District has been faced with a lot of challenges and a plan to remedy this situation has been put in place and it is working. Is our service where we want it to be at this time? Not yet. However, we are confident that we have established processes that will better meet customers' needs and improve service.

“The Richmond District will continue to address the concerns raised by our customers. In addition, we find ourselves in the peak mail volume period - what we call Fall mailing season - and this is always a challenging time.

“Our customers can expect that the Postal Service is committed to providing excellent service and to addressing issues that are identified by our customers.”

Customers can contact 1-800-275-8777 with any postal issues.