U.S. Postmaster tells Virginia officials the system has made ‘sustainable’ improvements

RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) — Virginia residents could be nearing the light at the end of the tunnel when it comes to mail delivery issues across the state.

Senator Tim Kaine recently had a conversation with the United States Postmaster General, who said the system has made sustainable improvements – especially in recent weeks.

However, Senator Kaine acknowledged that there’s still a long way to go, particularly in regards to transparency.

“Their confidence is really damaged,” Kaine said about his constituents’ feelings about USPS.

Kaine acknowledged the lingering impact of mail issues plaguing Virginia – even as postal service officials suggest the system is improving. Kaine reiterated how the trouble started to spike after the U.S. Postal Service opened a distribution center in Henrico County. Since then, he and other elected officials have had repeated conversations with U.S. Postmaster Louis DeJoy.

“[DeJoy] was very candid and apologetic in, and expressing, his concern about how poorly it had gone and how poorly Virginians were being served by this botched rollout,” Sen. Kaine said about the opening of the facility in Henrico.

After a recent conversation, he said the Postmaster DeJoy doubled-down — guaranteeing Virginia a distribution center that will be seen as a “national model.” After assessing statistics from the past few months – and even recent weeks – Kaine confirmed there has been a significant improvement in on-time delivery across the state.

“Progress is being made,” Sen. Kaine said. “But it’s not enough.”

Charlottesville remains an outlier, still facing severe hold-ups. Plus, the state as a whole has still only moved from the bottom in the nation to third from the bottom in terms of on-time delivery.

“That quarterly data showed us still significantly below both national averages and the postal service’s own internal goals for on-time mail delivery,” Kaine said.

Moving forward, local officials said the postmaster agreed to continue to supply leaders with quarterly – and even weekly – data on a regular basis.

The senator emphasized, however, that the work doesn’t stop there. He explained how the problem wasn’t just the mail system’s delays and problems in and of itself, rather that the lack of transparency between the federal agency and Virginians contributed significantly to the cultivated mistrust and frustration.

Kaine said this topic came up during his meeting with the postmaster and that other Virginia leaders like Rep. Rob Wittman proposed a variety of solutions to ease communication moving forward.

“Do a telephone town hall where you just let anybody call-in and and ask questions and you get — as the post office — you get to present the information,” Sen. Kaine said.

Some residents told 8News that they have noticed improvements in recent weeks, but that the postal service is still nowhere near pre-pandemic reliability.

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