Former Chesapeake, Virginia mail carrier Jason Delacruz pleaded guilty to delay of mail by a postal employee. He had been caught filling a storage unit for “the sole purpose of storing mail he could not deliver,” according to the court records. According to the report, Delacruz felt “pressured” and was unable to “make time” to get it all delivered. He will be sentenced next month. Apparently there were more than 5,000 pieces of undelivered mail but that number reportedly includes a whopping 4,700 advertisements. From CNN:
The employee said he started hiding mail in November or December 2018 and he rented the storage unit in February 2019, according to court records. He said he put mail he was unable to deliver in the unit from that time up until he was discovered in May 2019.
Delacruz told authorities he intended to deliver the mail in the storage unit, but he fell behind and was never able to, according to court documents. He said he never destroyed any mail.
I can’t count how many times I’ve caught my mailman hanging out in his van playing with his cell phone. Then he rushes around the neighborhood like a chicken with his head cut off and screws up where the mail gets delivered. USPS should ban them from being able to carry personal cell phones on the job. I’ve got to lock up my personal cell phone in a locker at work. No reason that the mailman can’t do the same.
Typical government employee. Too lazy to do the job he’s getting paid to do so uses the tax dollars we are paying him to cover up his tracks. This just shows that government is totally corrupt from the very top to the very bottom.
How hard is this job…really. My mailman has got to be pushing 60 and he comes out in all conditions and it’s rare he ever takes any significant time off. He delivers the mail everyday at the same time like clockwork. I’ve always thought, at least with mail delivery, it was one of the few things our government did correctly. Maybe I just got lucky with an old school mailman.
Well they don’t call it SNAIL MAIL for nothing !! 
This is how you hear about all of these mysterious letters that randomly appear 100 years after they were sent.
I’ve often wondered if this is a common occurrence with mail carriers. I’ve sent things to family members that I know should have been delivered and weren’t. I’ve also been expecting mail that never arrived. If there’s no tracking on it there’s really not anything you can do. I’ve had customers tell me that they never received their invoice which I usually don’t buy… but after reading this story I don’t know maybe I should give them the benefit of the doubt.
We email invoices with delivered and read receipts.
I’d say 90% to 95% of my customer base we do the exact same thing. It’s beautiful. It’s the stubborn 5% - 10% who won’t use computers or smartphones but we have to mail everything to and get checks back. Total pain in the ass.
If they won’t agree to terms of service for e-mail, then create a clause in your contract they will be charged for the cost of certified mail and the time/labor to process it. Add $80.00 to your quotes and deduct it on final invoicing as an incentive.
Ha! That’s a good idea! I started the business when I got out of the Coast Guard which is right around the time that e-billing was starting to take hold. Back then it was probably 10 to 15% of our customers were getting everything through email but that shifted very rapidly and most people and businesses just opted in on their own. It’s the old school guys who want the paper copies in the mail. I like the surcharge idea because this does eat up a lot of our time now. When we were smaller it wasn’t such a big deal. We just did everything at the kitchen table at night. Those days are over. This is something we could easily just roll in as our contracts for marine maintenance and cleaning services renew annually.
Roll it in. These are your terms and conditions. They agree or they don’t when they sign the contract.
Not the first time, won’t be the last either.