REGIONAL—An audit report released this week has shed light on some of the problems facing the U.S. Postal Service as a result of the expansion in its package delivery service. The audit of the Bemidji Post Office found thousands of pieces of delayed mail, much of it unreported, as well as serious management failures that contributed to the delays.
The audit was requested by Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith in the wake of numerous complaints from Minnesotans about mail that was either delayed or lost entirely.
“When the mail is unreliable, it hurts Minnesotans, especially those who rely on the Postal Service to pay bills and receive paychecks and prescriptions,” said Sen. Smith. “Yet when I ask the Postal Service for information on these disruptions, they insist everything is fine. This report confirmed what I’ve heard from Minnesotans and postal workers across the state for years: the Postal Service management is failing Minnesotans.”
The Bemidji Post Office became the subject of national attention last November when the Washington Post reported on the sudden influx of thousands of Amazon packages to the facility. While the story focused on Bemidji, post offices around the country, including here in northeastern Minnesota, experienced a similar deluge of packages during the same period as part of an effort by top Post Office management to boost revenue through package delivery, particularly in rural areas where other delivery services find it too expensive to operate.
Representatives of the Post Office’s Inspector General’s office visited the Bemidji Post Office last Dec. 12-14, and found nearly 79,000 pieces of delayed mail in the facility on those three days alone and that facility management failed to accurately report the delays. At the time, Bemidji postal workers were inundated with thousands of packages daily and had been instructed to prioritize package delivery over regular mail. The report also makes it clear that management failures, not the failures of postal workers, are responsible for the problems.
Sen. Smith, in a press statement, noted that the audit findings directly contradict the Postal Service’s response to a Nov. 28, 2023 letter she wrote expressing concerns about problems with mail delivery. The Postal Service had responded, claiming that the service “has well-established procedures and guidance to help every facility in the country prepare for the busiest time of year.”
In fact, the audit report found that Post Office headquarters “did not have a program in place to provide Bemidji Post Office management with training on mail processing operations.”  
At the same time, the Post Office had failed to fill a number of job vacancies, which further added to the backlog and chaos.

“The results of this audit are very concerning and the Postal Service must work to implement the Inspector General’s recommendations to improve operations and provide Northern Minnesota post offices with the resources they need to serve their customers," said Sen. Klobuchar in response. "Minnesotans deserve to have a reliable and responsive Postal Service.”
The Timberjay also heard from local postal workers last November and December about the untenable volume of packages that they were expected to deliver, without adequate staffing to accomplish the task without letting other post office priorities fall by the wayside.
Earlier this year, the Timberjay reported on problems that it and other newspapers were experiencing with delivery of their newspapers by the Post Office.
Klobuchar and Smith said they plan to continue pushing for improvements. “This isn’t the end of this story. The Inspector General’s district-wide report will be released soon, and I look forward to getting a full picture so we can hold the Postal Service accountable for real solutions,” said Sen. Smith.