GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — The holiday season means packages — and lots of them.
Last year alone, the United States Postal Service reported a mail volume of more than 116 billion.
But it's not just holiday cheer keeping these workers busy year-round.
"The Postal Service connects Americans everywhere, delivering critical mail like prescription drugs, Social Security checks, rent payments, small business packages and the list goes on," said Senate Homeland Security Chair Sen. Gary Peters (D-Michigan).
But will your mail arrive on time?
Some fear the post office might not be up to it in Michigan — especially in more rural areas like much of the Upper Peninsula.
"My constituents have now reported delays to important mail like insurance claims, rent checks, the list goes on," Peters said in a Thursday hearing regarding changes to and the financial situation of the USPS. "There have also been delayed prescriptions where extra days certainly matter."
Peters drew issue with what U.S. Postmaster General Louis Dejoy identified as likely being the service's Local Transportation Optimization initiative, that Peters signaled had preceded these delays.
The Postal Service's Office of Inspector General identifies the plan as one meant to reduce the number of trips to certain delivery units, a move that could come with potential cost savings.
"Whether service, the incidents that you're speaking about were relate—consequences were related to that change or not—I cannot comment on because there are other reasons why service fails or why expectations are not met," DeJoy said in response to what Peters had said were his constituents' concerns.
In Michigan, the latest data from the third full week of November showed an on-time rate of slightly over 87% for first-class mail in "MICHIGAN 2," the region that encompasses the upper peninsula as well ass much of West and Mid-Michigan.
While a more regional approach has since been taken over the original LTO initiative, DeJoy defended his handling of Postal Service aspects Thursday.
"From the standpoint of service and cost effectiveness of the labor dollar, I think there is much improvement that we have made, and much improvement that we can get to."