'Immense' problems: Postal Service reviewing Tallahassee Mail ops, wants feedback

What do you think about mail service in Florida's capital city?

Now you can deliver your constructive criticism directly to the United States Postal Service as they review the operations and propose improvements for the Tallahassee Mail Processing Facility.

Subpar mail delivery in Tallahassee has long been a subject of consternation among residents with the topic regularly exploding on social media or being raised to the attention of elected officials.

"The problems are immense and the service has been awful for years," said Leon County Commissioner Brian Welch, who has gotten an earful from constituents on the topic over the years.

The facility review wasn't sparked by the widespread issues, but is rather a part of a 10-year plan for USPS in which "the Postal Service is investing $40 billion to modernize the nation's aging postal processing and delivery network."

"The organization is assessing how this facility can best support service and operational goals in Florida, as well as provide platforms for launching new products and competitive services for mailing and shipping customers in the future," said Carol Hunt, communications specialist for USPS, said in an e-mailed statement.

Members of the local community may submit written comments at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/mpfr-tallahassee-fl.

The review comes after multiple years of attempts to fix problems, going as far back as 2019.

At that point, USPS officials spoke with former U.S. Rep. Al Lawson and former state Rep. Loranne Ausley, who were trying to understand issues within the facility and map out a plan to provide better service. One of the main issues they found were "parcel pressure," which means parcel deliveries are encouraged over regular mail service due to being more profitable. Personnel shortages, recruitment challenges, and trouble maintaining delivery routes also were factors.

Many have taken to Facebook over the years to post their personal experiences with the USPS service in the city. Some have blamed the government and others have noticed just how understaffed their offices are.

"For now till after Christmas will likely be a nightmare of a long slow moving line," said one resident.

Another resident complained of days of missing service while others spoke of long delays to get letters and packages.

"Unless you've lived somewhere with good efficient mail service you don't know how bad it is here. So many times I've had packages get across the country in 2-3 days then spend 5-7 [days] getting across town."

As recently as March of this year, county Commissioner Brian Welch spoke with U.S. Rep Neal Dunn to tackle the issue once again.

"Dr. Dunn and his staff share our frustration and bewilderment with the level of service being provided by the USPS in northeast Tallahassee," said Welch in a Facebook post.

Welch said that the meeting was held to bring the issue to Dunn's attention. There weren't any direct results, to his knowledge, and he even admitted he was unaware of the upcoming facility review.

"Since the meeting service seems to have gotten better and now we have a direct line of contact with the congressman to send complaints. He said he would talk to his contact at USPS so this could be a result of that though I'm not sure."

The Tallahassee Democrat reached out to Neal Dunn's office but did not hear back as of press time.

Arianna Otero is the City Solutions Reporter for the Tallahassee Democrat. Contact her via email at AOtero@gannett.com or on Twitter @ari_v_otero

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: USPS wants feedback on Tallahassee mail service amid complaints