USPS: no "new" curbside delivery in Lahaina

[kalakoa]

“You never really realize how shitty it is to not get your mail, until it actually happens,"

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...ivery-usps

[Chas]

...or you moved to HPP! 

[Olohana 1790]

Lahaina?... its than near Eden Roc?

[leilanidude]

As the post office becomes less and less relevant, they have been stopping all new deliveries to the door. It saves them a lot of money.

[Durian Fiend]

As the post office becomes less and less relevant, they have been stopping all new deliveries to the door. It saves them a lot of money.

Seems to me the PO is more relevant than ever for delivering those Amazon packages.

[HiloJulie]

Seems to me the PO is more relevant than ever for delivering those Amazon packages.

True that.

One would also think its relevancy for delivering mail in voting ballots would be first and foremost.

[terracore]

The thing with the USPS in Puna is not "just" that they don't offer residential pickup and delivery to most addresses. It's that they don't offer any reasonable alternative either.

Our post offices have years-long waits for PO boxes. Neighborhood cluster boxes wait periods are longer than that. Counter lines can be hours long, often stretching outdoors under unsafe hot weather conditions. Reports of theft and mistreatment by employees is rampant on social media, and every location has been perpetually understaffed for as long as anybody can remember. Service times and quality have been steadily deteriorating for decades. Out of frustration, many people are hiring private "mail" services to do the USPS's job for them. People are willing to pay for things like non-PO Boxes, counters that are staffed etc, and the USPS with it's $88B infrastructure, 250 years of business experience, and virtually unlimited line of credit is unable to accomplish what small business owners in Puna can do.

It doesn't have to be this way. Other states (like Alaska) had senators that used their influence to force the USPS to provide the same level of service as they do any other state. Our elected representatives have no desire to tackle this issue. I know because I contacted every one of them and asked. Maybe because it's not so bad on Oahu, the only island that seems to matter to them.

So okay... the USPS can't deliver or pickup mail in Puna for whatever bullshit reason that doesn't seem to apply in every other rural part of the United States, including Alaska which is MUCH more rural than any of the other 49. What are they doing to provide an "equal level of service" in lieu of actual service? Absolutely nothing. Just worsening conditions and service. The USPS answers to congress. If congress doesn't inquire, things continue to get worse. This makes this a local issue, because the USPS is beholden to the people you vote for.

I know that posts like these tend to make people defensive because they know how hard their local USPS employees are working. And most of them deserve that credit, especially when the bureaucracy requires them to abandon common sense in performance of their duties. I can't imagine how hard that is to do every day. They would be the first ones helped by USPS changes that were designed to support them.

[Punatang]

Terracore posted: Counter lines can be hours long, often stretching outdoors under unsafe hot weather conditions. Reports of theft and mistreatment by employees is rampant on social media, and every location has been perpetually understaffed for as long as anybody can remember. Service times and quality have been steadily deteriorating for decades. Out of frustration, many people are hiring private "mail" services to do the USPS's job for them.


On the positive side though - we can totally trust them with our elections.

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

we can totally trust them with our elections.

Yes, you’re right. The Heritage Foundation is a conservative think tank. They have tracked election fraud longer and in more detail than any other organization. Here’s their complete page for Hawaii, 5 cases since 1982, or like a billionth or trillionth of a percent of the total vote.

https://electionfraud.heritage.org/search?state=hi

[randomq]

The thing about the USPS is that when they fail, they do it in a fair and nonpartisan way! :-)

Seriously though, conservative politicians have been screwing over USPS funding/retirements for a long time, and it probably explains why they can't afford to cover new routes in Puna.