Trucks line up at Cleveland Post Office distribution center, as mail delays mount

CLEVELAND — As Christmas inches closer, trucks continue to line up outside the U.S. Postal Service Cleveland distribution center. Holiday gift baskets, Christmas cards, and even medication is being stalled as residents wait for mail delayed by coronavirus restrictions and staff absences. The post office refused to answer questions about delays, their cause, or when they're expected to end. A spokeswoman said last week the postal service is hiring seasonal employees and allocating resources to its facilities that need additional resources. Packages at the post office have ballooned during the pandemic, as people order goods and supplies on line. In May, Richard Clark, acting senior Post Office operations manager for the Northern Ohio District, said the post office was on track to handle more mail than December 2019. "Our package volume has increased 70 percent due to (Gov. Mike DeWine's) stay-at-home order. The COVID-19 pandemic is the number-one reason for us to get Christmas volume in May." Now the holidays are here, and the mountain of mail is stressing the system. Kathleen Helbig-Hannan of Shaker Heights calls the delays unconscionable. She recently filmed video of trucks waiting to unload at the Cleveland facility. Helbig-Hannan says she ordered five Christmas gift baskets through a local company. She could see through tracking information that her shipping label was printed on Nov. 30, and the packages arrived at the Lakewood Ohio Post Office. After that, the Lakewood Post Office transported the packages to the main distribution center, where they were supposed to be acknowledged in their system, says Helbig-Hannan. So far, nothing. "Here's my concern with them — it's really their lack of communication, or maybe acknowledgment of the problem or how they're going to resolve it," says Helbig-Hannan. "These truck drivers have been sitting there (some of them over two days) waiting to be unloaded. It's just not right." Hundreds of people are voicing concerns about delays on social media. Judy Adams Leatherman shared this comment on a cleveland.com Facebook post when asked if she noticed packages or mail arriving late: "Absolutely! Do everything I can to avoid using them this year! Still waiting on at least two very late packages. And those trucks sitting around waiting — that's just horrible! Hire people. Ask National Guard to help — something!" Bob Gonzalez also commented on the same post: "Good God yes. Still waiting on a package that has been perpetually "delayed in transit" for three weeks now. Anything that has been scheduled to come UPS/FedEx has been on time tho!" The postal service has not given an end date or a solution, but USPS is still encouraging customers to continue to mail packages early. "We thank our customers for their continued support, and we are committed to making sure gifts and cards are delivered on time to celebrate the holidays," said Kristin Seaver, chief retail and delivery officer of the Postal Service, in a news release. "We also thank our 644,000 employees who are working tirelessly throughout these unique conditions to ensure the delivery of holiday gifts and greetings. "We continue to flex our network including making sure the right equipment is available to sort, process, and deliver a historic volume of mail and packages this holiday season." ___ (c)2020 The Plain Dealer, Cleveland Visit The Plain Dealer, Cleveland at www.cleveland.com Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.