As we speak, postal workers across the United States are rallying for extended service hours, which they feel would create more job stability and better customer service. This is spearheaded by the American Postal Workers Union, who represents only the mail sorters and counter clerks, not the mail carriers.

Many of our customers use postage meters and postage ink supplies to ship packages, but lately, the packages have been slower to arrive to their ultimate destination. This is because of the USPS behind-the-scenes politics. The USPS is not a government program, therefore it is run by a board of governors and postal executives, whose apparent cutbacks in service have caused a rippling effect of delayed mail arrival and poor customer service.

What would longer post office hours mean for your business? For many business owners, it would improve their customer service on a grand scale. Rather than customers waiting a long time for the delivery of their products, especially in rural areas, they might actually receive them on time. These days, “on time” is a rarity in the postal sector.

According to the Washington Post, first class mail only arrived on time 53% of the time within the first few months of 2015. And an act to abort overnight mail delivery since the beginning of January has also severely slowed the process of mail delivery. The USPS gets the bulk of its revenue from first class mail, which has declined in the past few years, however the volume of packages has increased due to the widespread popularity of ecommerce.

As more and more people prefer shopping online, so too does the need for better delivery services increase. The USPS has always been the best standby, albeit riddled with problems and sometimes terrible customer service.

The contract between APWU is set to expire on May 20^th, 2015, therefore postal workers are likely to be seen in 85 cities across the United States, picketing and asking customer to sign postcards that will be sent to the Postmaster General. These signs and postcards will send a message that says, “I Stand With Postal Workers” and for those who do operate ecommerce and other businesses, this is an important transitionary period that could mean the difference between continued, lousy service or not.

The spark that started the magnifying glass hovering over the USPS happened when they decided to eliminate overnight delivery for first class letters; back in January of 2015. Since that time, all of the first class mail has been taking an extra day to arrive. Some customers are annoyed or frustrated, and so are the postal staff, especially those who sort mail or deal directly with customers, face to face.

Packages are the bulk of business, so hopefully, this latest picketing will move the postal executives and board of governors to act in favor of the workers and the people.