{"id":24369,"date":"2024-12-17T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-12-17T19:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/we-have-not-met-service-expectations-usps-acknowledges-in-light-of-durango-mail-delays\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T22:53:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:53:10","slug":"we-have-not-met-service-expectations-usps-acknowledges-in-light-of-durango-mail-delays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/we-have-not-met-service-expectations-usps-acknowledges-in-light-of-durango-mail-delays\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018We have not met service expectations\u2019 USPS acknowledges in light of Durango mail delays"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"The
The Durango post office is hiring to fill about 20 positions. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald file)<\/span>du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The Durango post office is understaffed and hiring.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not news to the dozens of Durango-area residents who have taken to social media to lament the irregular and generally lackluster mail service.<\/p>\n

\u201cI haven\u2019t received any of my mail in a week,\u201d one Durango resident wrote on the social networking site Nextdoor.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday I got mail for the first time in 1\u00bd weeks,\u201d another commented.<\/p>\n

Residents complain of packages with tracking information showing they are out for delivery for days at a time; bills never arrive; and the Mountain Trace HOA informed residents of the townhomes northeast of Durango that mail would be delivered there only once per week, according to a notice reviewed by The Durango Herald.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been behind the eight ball with hiring for quite some time,\u201d said U.S. Postal Service spokesman James Boxrud.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not a new problem. Colorado\u2019s lawmakers have been aware <\/a>of it for some time. But the problem is drawn into high relief around the holidays as the USPS enters its busiest period.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know we have not met service expectations of the community and are working hard to restore the respect of the public,\u201d Boxrud wrote in an email to the Herald<\/em>. \u201cFor many months, we have been aggressively seeking both clerks and carriers to stabilize our workforce.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Durango office is looking to hire eight mail carriers and about a dozen rural carrier associates who provide day-off relief.<\/p>\n

Positions have an hourly starting salary range of $19.33 to $20.38. This is one challenge for the service, Boxrud said. Carrier salaries are negotiated on a national scale with a union.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomebody in Manhattan, Kansas, makes the same as they do in Manhattan, New York,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Being a federal agency, the ability to offer incentives such as signing bonuses is limited.<\/p>\n

The Colorado Springs post office is generally well staffed because of the presence of military bases and the continuity of federal benefits between agencies. Boxrud said the USPS can often tempt employees in well-staffed areas, such as Colorado Springs, to serve short stints in the Durango post office. There were five borrowed employees from around Colorado working in Durango in early December, and the office was hoping to bring in five more.<\/p>\n

The agency holds a hiring fair about every six weeks at the Durango post office in an attempt to fill vacant positions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are great jobs that can quickly lead to career opportunities with full benefits, including paid annual and sick leave, holiday pay, health care, retirement, and other benefits,\u201d Boxrud wrote.<\/p>\n

To find open jobs with the USPS, visit usps.com\/careers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, some agency staff members are urging the public to be patient and shop locally for the holidays.<\/p>\n

rschafir@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

residents complain that packages marked \u2018out for delivery\u2019 for days at a time<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24370,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[2532,28,598],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-24369","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-business-and-finance","tag-headlines","tag-public-holiday"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24369","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24369"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24369\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78507,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24369\/revisions\/78507"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24369"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=24369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}