In fact, winter weather challenges in the highlands of northern Arizona have proven sufficient to keep the course of many mail carriers in the region.

Email latency is a concern for many customers who rely on their email service for business, health, and personal matters. The United States Postal Service (USPS) points to bad weather, staffing shortages and even his COVID-19, but some disgruntled customers say the unreliability of the postal service in their area is unreliable. suggests that it is close to

Officially, it’s the customer’s responsibility to keep their mailboxes accessible in inclement weather, said Rod Spurgeon, media representative for USPS Arizona.

During the winter, that means clearing the accumulated snow.

“The U.S. Postal Service will make every reasonable attempt to locate mailboxes where they can be safely accessed,” Spurgeon said. When impassable, postal carriers must consider safety and accessibility first, and have been instructed to refrain from delivering to locations deemed too dangerous.”

He added that customers should “remove enough snow from boxes on curbs so that mail trucks can approach the box, deliver the mail, and eject it from the box without danger or the need to back off.” .

But with the record snowfall that characterizes Flagstaff’s current winter, removing enough snow to allow the approach of mail trucks could be impractical.

That’s the case on East Bennett Drive off Lake Mary Road. The area is affectionately known to residents as “Flagstaff’s North Pole”. There, ample shade from the surrounding ponderosa forest keeps the area a few degrees cooler and keeps the snow cover. Even if the snow melts for the rest of the city, it remains on East Bennett Drive. During active winters, the snow on this street can get out of control and overwhelm a reasonable address.

For resident John Offner, his property has a 7-foot-high, 14-foot-wide bank that extends from the sidewalk to the street. His mailbox was buried in this ice fortress “for quite some time”.

“Even removing snow from mailboxes is impractical,” says Offner. “So we just move [a mailbox] outside. “

Offner’s solution is a pole-mounted mailbox set in a five-gallon concrete bucket. As the snowman grows bigger and bigger, he moves this second mailbox of his to a location easily accessible by the postman. He said this strategy, or variations of it, are employed by many of his neighbors.

“I think it’s become one of those things when you move into the neighborhood and say, ‘This is our job,'” he said. “And, surprisingly, I get emails every now and then.”

Offner also credits his postman, who praised him for his diligence and knowledge of routes.

“He’s our man,” Offner said.

Offner described Bennett Drive’s secondary mailbox as a “community-driven” adaptation, but noted that “mailboxes can only be moved to another location with the approval of the local postmaster. said Spurgeon.

He further explained that customers can request approval by sending a written copy of the mailbox plan to the postmaster’s address. Declined to specify whether the request should be sent from the customer’s inaccessible or unapproved mailbox.

What worked for East Bennett Drive may not be a good enough solution for the rest of Flagstaff.For Doney Park resident Brandyjo Collins, the problem appears to be systemic. Her mail doesn’t arrive for weeks at a time.

“I checked my USPS account this morning and there were over 20 mail items scheduled for delivery.”

Collins said he often relied on the mail for payments from customers and couldn’t understand why the mail was so often cut off. The explanations provided are often nonsensical.

“Usually it’s weather, weather, weather,” she said. “Well, we’ve all cleared our driveway, our mailboxes, our roads. I’ve made sure everything is done. I see a postman truck in the street. And I’ll go home and check my mail, but , nothing, then I look at the website and it says ‘delivery not possible due to road conditions and bad weather’. ”

Collins also said that when emails do arrive, they often go to the wrong address.

“There’s a woman who lives a block away from me,” she said. “I got an email from her about three weeks ago. I did.”

The frequency and type of mail delivery problems Collins experienced prompted him to file a formal complaint. In an official letter she received in response, the USPS said it “deeply apologizes” and added, “Flagstaff PO is severely understaffed. Working 7 days.Our current staff are suffering from COVID and fatigue issues.We are actively recruiting, recruiting and training new employees.”

Spurgeon similarly noted that staffing challenges are not unique to Flagstaff.

“The COVID-19 pandemic, an increase in consumers ordering essentials online, and employment issues across the country have exacerbated this in many communities,” Spurgeon said.

Former USPS employee Gina Young believes the post office’s staffing problem is also exacerbated by “the way employees are treated.”

“Regional carriers typically work 14 hours, six days a week to deliver assigned routes,” Young wrote in an email to the Arizona Daily Sun. . “If they fall on the ice, they’re recorded. A flat tire, buried in snow, written. Carpal tunnel, written up.”

According to Flagstaff resident Chuck Burns, who has experienced sporadic mail deliveries in the University Heights area, on a recent visit to the post office, he had an insightful conversation with the employee behind the counter. .

“He told me there were 12 carriers out, some with broken ankles, some with broken wrists, and one with a broken back,” Barnes said. said. “And it was all about skating on ice.”

Spurgeon told the Arizona Daily Sun newspaper, “We don’t have more employees than usual during the winter.”

The local Flagstaff postmaster did not respond to a request for clarification on the comments.

If true, Burns said these injuries are proof that Flagstaff mail carriers are working hard to live up to their slogans.

“They deserve our sympathy and all our support,” he said.

Pauly Saciad, close to Flagstaff’s mail carrier, said he was sure the local carriers were working hard. But she believes they may not have the organizational support they need.

“People without medical conditions work 12+ hours a day to do the best they can each day,” says Sasiad. “Be patient and compassionate with the carriers who are doing their job and trying to get your mail. I am at the mercy of someone.”

If dangerous work, long hours, and understaffing sound like the cause of labor problems, it’s because they are. The USPS is facing a national labor crisis, according to John Robles, Regional Administrative Assistant for the National Association of Postal Carriers (NALC), a postal union. He shared his perspective from the post in Denver, but his description of the vicious cycle seems to apply to the Flagstaff situation as well.

“The cost of living is high and it’s hard to hire and keep people,” Robles said. “We are so understaffed that when people are hired, they are down to earth and many quit.”

NALC is fully aware of the postal carrier labor crisis and is working as a union to remedy the situation.

“There are some things that have to be negotiated through collective bargaining,” Robles said. “Higher wages to start employees, to get them in the door. That’s one of our goals. And we’re trying to keep the excess hours a secret.”

“It’s a huge circle,” he added. “We’ve been working on it for a while.”

As an organization representing 94% of postal workers, Robles said NALC is working closely with the USPS to change working conditions and address staffing issues.

“The administrative staff at the post office headquarters know it’s a problem,” he said. “We are working very well with the Postal Service right now.

In the meantime, we encourage any Flagstaff residents who are experiencing delivery issues to patiently grant access to their mailboxes and visit their local post office.

“If we can’t deliver our customers’ mail, we keep it safe at the post office,” says Spurgeon. “The Postal Service apologizes for any inconvenience our customers may experience. We are committed to delivering to our communities every day while remaining dedicated to the safety of our employees.”