5/22/2020 CLEVELAND, Ohio — Our ability to click online to have everything from gourmet pasta to prescription drugs shipped directly to our homes has made the coronavirus shutdown easier to bear. But all those extra packages are creating holiday-level headaches for the U.S. Postal Service.
photo credit: WSBTV
“Our package volume has increased 70% due to (Gov. Mike DeWine’s) stay-at-home order,” said Richard Clark, acting senior Post Office operations manager for the Northern Ohio District. “The COVID-19 pandemic is the number-one reason for us to get Christmas volume in May.”
The surge has been so strong that May is on track to surpass December 2019 in the number of post office package deliveries in the Northern Ohio District, which includes Akron, Toledo, Canton and Youngstown. “That is huge,” Clark said.
Right now, it’s not unusual for mail carriers to make deliveries multiple times each day in order to keep up with the influx of packages. Much of the extra volume derives from Amazon deliveries, since the U.S. Postal Service is the top delivery provider for Amazon, Clark said. Postal carriers even deliver Amazon packages, as well as USPS priority packages, on Sundays and holidays.
The Northern Ohio District has added about 70 temporary clerks to its 11,000 permanent employees to cope with the added volume. Postal Service employees are given masks, gloves and disinfecting wipes, and mail-processing machines are cleaned regularly, Clark said.