Snail-mail changes clog delivery

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - The backlog of undelivered packages results from more than the usual crush of holiday mail, U. S. Postal Service employees have been telling KRE News 13.

Yet the Postal Service, which says it, too, has taken hits from the sagging economy, reports that shouldn't affect service to its customers.

However snail mail is getting even more sluggish, according to two USPS employees in Albuquerque.

They didn't want to go on camera but told said overtime was recently cut causing mail and packages to pile up in at least two metro post offices just weeks before the holidays.

"I don't believe that," Barbara Wood of the postal service said. "I haven't seen that in any of the stations."

Wood said mail marked priority, 1st and 2nd class should be going out on-time. Carriers have been told not to work overtime, she added, but only when the mail load is low:

"When the volume is not there we have to make sure that our employees do eight hours of work and don't go over that," she said.

And with the volume of mail and revenue both falling, Wood said that caused USPS to shift things around. She conceded those changes could have caused delays.

"Recently we also did some route adjustments, so it takes them a little while to get used to that," Wood continued. "That could be why you're experiencing some delays."

Still, when News 13 was shooting video outside one post office, a mail carrier said they'd been ordered to work 12-hour shifts instead of eight,

And another employee said overtime was reinstated for some workers at the post office where he worked because of the backlog.

"I'm not aware of that," Wood said. "I know that if there is mail that we'll work the people the 12 hours that we need to get that out."

USPS said it plans hire about three dozen temporary workers to help with the holiday rush.

It's been years since the Postal Service did any permanent hiring in Albuquerque, and it is now asking some employees to take early retirement because of the bad economy.

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