It may soon feel like an early Christmas. Virgin Islanders tired of looking in empty post office boxes may have a pleasant surprise coming as Delegate to Congress Stacey Plaskett said Thursday she’d reached a deal to avert further delay and barge mail to the territory from Puerto Rico.
Much of the delay came from Amazon switching from shipping Ground Advantage to Parcel Select. That code change meant Amazon packages could no longer be flown from San Juan to St. Thomas, St. John, and St. Croix. Federal Aviation Administration regulations prohibit these packages from being sent by air and require surface transport.
“Consequently, several packages were in the process of being rerouted back to Jacksonville since there has not been mail barge service between Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands,” Plaskett’s office said Thursday.
The problem was compounded by a malfunction with a U.S. Postal Service labeling robot that sent USVI-bound packages to addresses outside the territory. A Plaskett spokesperson said the delegate’s office had been flooded with calls, emails, and text messages from frustrated Virgin Islanders.
Numerous meetings with Postal Service regional leadership yielded no additional light on the robotic mislabeling issue, but Plaskett was able to make a deal to barge the packages that weren’t mislabeled to St. Thomas, then to St. Croix, starting Nov. 2. The barge would be a regular Saturday occurrence after that, she said.
Regular Priority mail and Ground Advantage packages not mislabeled by the robotic labeling issue will continue to be flown or barged from Jacksonville to St. Thomas and St. Croix without delays, Plaskett said.
“My team and I realize that this USPS issue impacts a myriad of people in our community—business owners awaiting their products, individuals who need prescriptions, and so many others. I would like to thank the USPS employees for their tireless work to ensure that we are able to get our mail despite the various delays with the system, and I would also like to thank all the individuals that called in and/or sent in their USPS complaints. My team and I will continue to advocate on behalf of our territory to ensure that this issue and others like it with USPS are resolved as quickly as possible,” Plaskett said.
Virgin Islanders continuing to experience delays can phone Plaskett’s offices at 340-778-5900 or 340-774-4408.
