Minnesota mail service must improve

Opinion editor's note: Editorials represent the opinions of the Star Tribune Editorial Board, which operates independently from the newsroom.

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First-class mail delivery in Minnesota is among the worst in the country, ranking in the bottom 10 out of 50 U.S. Postal Service delivery regions for two-day service and an appalling third from the bottom for three- to five-day service.

U.S. Rep. Angie Craig, for more than a year now, said she is determined to find out why and how to improve this dreadful performance.

"I have sent them thousands of messages from my constituents," Craig told an editorial writer. "It is just astounding how their head remains in the sand. Over the past year, the Minnesota/North Dakota region has been ranked as one of the lowest-performing regions in the country, and I want to know why."

The Minnesota Democrat said her requests to meet with U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy have been ignored or rebuffed, while complaints about service draw anodyne assurances that Minnesotans should expect to receive mail delivered daily. "But their own data directly contradicts that," Craig said.

A USPS spokesperson, Desai Abdul-Razzaaq, told a Star Tribune reporter that performance has improved in 2023, with 98% of mail delivered within three days. He did not comment on whether the Postal Service prioritized package delivery, such as Amazon, over mail service.

According to the Postal Service's own performance statistics, the Minnesota-North Dakota district — one of 50 such delivery districts — has package delivery that ranks close to the top, with a score of 96.80. It drops significantly for two-day, first-class mail, down to 87.90, putting it in the bottom 10 for delivery districts. When it comes to three- to five-day service the ranking is a dismal 78.70. Only Tennessee and Alabama get worse service.

Craig's take? "I think the U.S. Postal Service has instructed carriers to stop mail deliveries if necessary in order to complete package runs," she said, noting that the Postal Service holds lucrative contracts for delivery of packages by Amazon and other online retailers. "It is just more profitable to deliver online retail packages than our mail," she said. Put simply, Craig added, "They make more money."

DeJoy has been a controversial figure ever since his appointment by former President Donald Trump in 2020. DeJoy's "Delivering for America" 10-year plan to remake the Postal Service calls for cost-cutting of $3 billion per year.

When the Postal Regulatory Commission questioned some elements of his plan, DeJoy's response to House lawmakers was a harsh, "We don't need to be babysat."

Craig said that DeJoy's stated intention has been to make the Postal Service a profit center. "But then stop telling my constituents to expect daily mail service, because it's not happening," she said.

There have been other troubling issues with the Postal Service. Carriers, Craig said, sometimes get as little as one day off every two weeks and can work 10- to 12-hour days. Postal workers have contacted Craig's office, she said, "to tell me what's going on behind the scenes."

In a separate but related matter, Craig on Thursday joined U.S. Sens. Tina Smith and Amy Klobuchar in sending a letter to DeJoy to get answers on an apparent payroll system error that led to some 2,200 rural carriers missing their paychecks — the second such payroll problem in three months. The first time, in September, some 53,000 postal workers either missed their checks or only got partial pay. The Postal Service said at the time that the error had been corrected.

The December letter to DeJoy noted that "rural carriers provide an essential service ... they deliver medicine, bills, Social Security checks and other crucial documents and items," and deserve "timely compensation." Smith, Klobuchar and Craig also have sent inquiries about widespread reports of missing and delayed mail deliveries statewide.

While the volume of personal letters and other items has declined in the digital age, Minnesotans and Americans across the U.S. still depend on the Postal Service for efficient delivery of bills, payments, documents, passports, medications and other vital items.

Craig said one of her constituents waited four days for what should have been two-day delivery of a prescription. The constituent, she said, wound up in the emergency room. "This seems to be a management strategy that is causing havoc in our communities," Craig said.