POSTAL IN MT HOLLY

EDITORIAL: HAVING DIFFICULTY? GET READY FOR A ROAD TRIP

UPDATE: The Post Master for our area is Darryl Patterson. If you have difficulty getting your problem resolved by using the contact information provided below, you can call Patterson at his work cell which is 215-601-4339

About 10 years ago we had a real nice mail carrier. He had a knee problem from all that walking, but he planned to retire to his land down south where he could fish and take it easy. Then Wendel came along. He remembered everything and made sure that things didn’t get stolen. We loved Wendel. When he left about 5 years ago the US Postal Service started to deliver a revolving cast of carriers who never stay long enough to remember anybody.

I posted a large message on the door to help the carriers. And while it did help somewhat the mistakes didn’t stop. I don’t demand perfection, but the service has definitely gotten worse over the last five years.

So I lowered my expectations, but that not prepare me for what came next.

About a month ago I placed a big sign on an apartment mail box which read “__name__ DOES NOT LIVE HERE.” And that worked for about 3 weeks until the mail delivery for that name resumed. So I removed the mail box thinking the carrier would be dissuaded, but no. The intrepid carrier rubber-banded the mail and just dropped it on the porch.

I went to Mount Holly post office and said “I need to understand post office policy on something”. I then showed the employee the little mailbox with the big sign. And I said, “are postal carriers required to deliver mail to an address which no longer has the recipient living there?”

The woman looked at me with the expression of a person who had heard the story before. No, the carrier is not required to do that. She gave me the little slip of paper which had the address of the Mount Laurel “Carrier Annex” where I could find someone who has the authority to deal with this kind of problem.

And so I traveled there and it is the most confusing post office you ever saw. Finally I saw a small sign that said “customer parking”, but when you go that way, it doesn’t look like there are any customers. That’s because its not actually a post office, its the “carrier annex”. I followed an employee into the building like I belonged. He turned around and asked me what I wanted. He then said, hold on, let me get the supervisor. When the supervisor arrived, he said “stand in the yellow box”. I complied.

He asked me how he could help so I showed him the little mail box with the sign and asked the same question I asked in Mount Holly. The supervisor said:

“Your carrier bid for the route you are on, but then found another route that was better for him and bid on that.”

He what -he bid on it? Yes.

I didn’t question him on the bidding system [see below]. But it was obvious that carriers get to request routes through a “bidding” process. The supervisor told me that a sign will be placed somewhere inside so the carrier for my route will see hopefully NOT deliver mail for those specific names.

I then imagined it continuing so I asked about the phone number provided for the Carrier Annex and whether anybody was there to pick up or whether I could leave a message. No -they are busy in the annex and if they are there when the phone rings, they pick up.

I then asked about the size of routes. I could have sworn he said about 10 square miles. He definitely said it was big enough for a carrier to be busy for a full shift and that “they are bigger than you think”.

I suggest that if you have a persistent service problem you should try the phone number but its likely you will need to drive to 4000 Irwin Road in Mt. Laurel.

Here is what Google Artificial Intelligence replies when you ask about post office route bidding process:

“The postal carrier bidding process is based on seniority, where vacant routes are posted and carriers submit bids to claim them. The carrier with the highest seniority who bids on the route is typically awarded the position after a successful bid and trial period, which can involve an online system, an automated telephone system, or a paper-based system. Once a bid is won, the carrier attempts the route to confirm it is a good fit before making it their permanent assignment.”