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Delegate to Congress Stacey Plaskett on Monday called on the U.S. Postal Service to investigate and provide solutions to issues affecting mail delivery and safety in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Ms. Plaskett, in a letter to US Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, called for attention to the "substantial inequities of service occurring in the district of the U.S. Virgin Islands."
"As a remote location in the United States, the Virgin Islands is highly dependent on the USPS, and the service currently provided is far below the standard service elsewhere in the United States," Ms. Plaskett wrote. "The inadequacies fall into two categories: the lack of adequate personnel and delayed packages."
The letter was also signed by Chairwoman of the House Oversight and Reform Committee Carolyn Maloney along with other committee members.
The letter further reads:
“My office has reached out to USPS management at the local and regional level multiple times to request that mail be flown directly to the Virgin Islands and sorted there. Our office has been told repeatedly that the Virgin Islands does not have enough mail volume to require a sorting machine. Yet, in Puerto Rico there is not enough personnel to sort the mail bound for both U.S. territories, and it is the mail bound for the Virgin Islands that is delayed as a result. Additionally, with the increase in bulk packages being shipped to the Virgin Islands through USPS, mail volume has increased. The increase in volume should not inure solely to the benefit of USPS personnel numbers in Puerto Rico. I am thankful for the Chairwoman of the full committee and the other members of the committee for lending their support to these issues.
“Next, there are far too many cases of damaged packages delivered to the Virgin Islands. While some accidents are inevitable, there is an unusually high volume of parcels arriving to the Virgin Islands with water damage, boxes forcibly opened and then hastily re-taped, accusations of theft, as well as evidence of footprints left on packages, suggesting they have been stepped on or kicked. Furthermore, due to the unusually high volume of mail coming into Puerto Rico, some USPS locations lack the space to store the backlog of mail, and it is often left outside, where it is inevitably damaged by weather.
“My letter requests that the Postmaster General immediately investigate these matters thoroughly to provide the people of the Virgin Islands with solutions to these deeply concerning issues and the USPS service that they need and deserve. My letter requests that that Postmaster General reconsider having mail bound for the Virgin Islands sorted in Miami, Florida and delivered directly to the Virgin Islands. It is the duty of the Postal Service to provide adequate service to the citizens of the United States, including Americans in locations outside of the contiguous United States, such as the Virgin Islands.”
