Mail Delivery to Change in Missouri in April & You Won’t Be Happy

Everyone needs to take a deep breath because everything will be OK. Well, I hope it will be alright as mail delivery will be changing in Missouri starting in April and there's a better than average chance that you won't be happy about it.

I am the proud son of a postal worker who delivered mail in Missouri and also worked the front window of the post office for over 30 years. I say this to emphasize that I don't enjoy sharing controversial news about the post office. Trust me when I tell you that my dad was not fun to be around when the USPS changed the price of stamps. Everyone blamed him even though he was just the clerk.

With that out of the way, Newsweek shared some changes that everyone in Missouri will soon be dealing with. The USPS will be breaking down mail delivery into 3 different processes and that will slow down some mail delivery while others will stay the same and they claim some might even be faster.

They are forecasting that 75% of the mail will be delivered at the same pace as it is now. 14% could see faster delivery while 11% is now expected to take longer. The USPS is adding a 5-digit regional add-on zip code instead of the 3 they used to use. That will allegedly improve accuracy.

But wait, there's more...

While the first round of changes begin in April, a second wave of different processes will begin in June, too.

As a Missouri resident, our family has had all kinds of delivery problems over the last year. It seems there are a lot of temp carriers who aren't familiar with routes and that has made receiving our mail correctly an adventure.

These changes are due to budget cutbacks and there could be more to come as one of those 4-letter agencies continues their "audits". I will admit that I am not a fan of change and I fear this is one change that will not be for the better.

I am sympathetic to the USPS workers and don't blame them. When you're given less resources to work with while expected to perform better, that's an unfair ask.