Mail Delivery Rate in Chicago Improves

By Soyoung Kwak in Miscellaneous on Nov 7, 2010 6:45PM

A few years back, we wrote about how Chicago's mail-delivery rate was the worst in the nation according to the Chicago Sun Times. At 91 percent, Chicago had the worst overnight mail delivery rate from June to September 2006. There was even a time when that percentage got worse, when the mail delivery rate went down to 89 percent in the early part of 2007. Now, three years after one of the lowest points in Chicago mail delivery history, the mail delivery rate in Chicago has improved significantly, rising to 96 percent from July to August this year.

Of course, the changes and improvements didn't occur overnight. After the article appeared in the Sun-Times, it was difficult to forget about the bad news even as the Postal Service in Chicago was encouraged by congressmen, aldermen, and the U.S. postmaster general to bring their percentage up. It looks like the encouragement worked:

Since then, the Postal Service in Chicago has hired 500 new mail carriers, overhauled faulty mail-sorting machines and trained delivery supervisors to keep better tabs on how the mail was being picked up, sorted and delivered.

Even though the Chicago Postal Service has made great changes in their delivery tactics, the delivery rate is still 1 percent behind the national average. We're definitely glad that the numbers are improving.