An upsurge in packages arriving at local post offices bearing no box numbers is creating delivery issues, and the USPS is asking Islanders for help.
The United States Postal Service delivered a note to box holders over the weekend from Francine Segarra, a manager in the USPS Long Island District office in Melville. In it, she urged box holders to always include their box number as an extension of their street address and ZIP code when signing up for package deliveries.
“Many Shelter Island residents have had an increase in the number of packages they have been receiving through the U.S. Postal Service, and with the increase of these packages, there have been some delivery issues and concerns regarding these items,” she said. When receiving mail through the USPS, she said, “it is vital that your PO Box number be included as part of the delivery address.”
If you’ve spent any time living on Shelter Island, it cannot have escaped notice that there is no mail delivery here. Instead, residents are entitled to a free PO Box at one of the two post offices, where access to boxes is provided 24 hours a day. If a package is delivered that’s too big to fit into your box, you’ll find a yellow card you can redeem at the window during retail hours (more on that below).
This creates all kinds of headaches for Islanders, not the least of which has to do with something called last-mile delivery (the final connection between a delivery’s source of origin and your home). When ordering online, don’t assume the package will be delivered to your street address even if the service provider says it will. Amazon and other online services may farm out last-mile delivery to local providers including USPS. While this works in areas where mail delivery is routine, it doesn’t work here.
“Whether your item is shipped through the USPS or another courier, a street address is often required,” Segarra said in her note. “Additionally, the other couriers, such as FedEx and/or UPS will often utilize the USPS for the delivery of these packages to your PO Box.”
The trick to seamless package delivery on Shelter Island, Segarra says, is to always include your box number in your delivery address. Whenever you’re ordering something to be shipped to you and the provider asks for a street address, add you PO Box number like you would an apartment number. And then, add it to the ZIP code in four-digit format, too.
So while we write our mailing address simply as Shelter Island Gazette, PO Box 1024, Shelter Island Heights, NY 11965, we should write our delivery address as: Shelter Island Gazette, 13 Grand Avenue #1024, Shelter Island Heights, NY 11965-1024.
“We need your help and attention in this matter so that we can get this corrected moving forward,” Segarra wrote.
Other issues
Earlier this month, the retail window at the Heights post office closed for two days, setting off all sorts of speculation on social media. Citing employee privacy, the USPS wouldn’t comment other than to say staff are dealing with the same pressures relating to the novel coronavirus as everyone else and “we continue flexing our available resources to match the workload.”
Local officials say they were told a staffing shortage resulted when one employee called in sick with non-COVID-19 illness while another was on vacation, leaving just one person to sort and process mail.
While complaints about mail delivery are commonplace (and probably have been since mail was invented), the combination of COVID-19 stay at home orders, increased online ordering and USPS staffing reductions have created a new level of angst here, if social media rants are an indicator. Some lament an apparent lack of local knowledge on the part of new staff.
Segarra said that employees at both locations “have been changing, so they do no know all the residents like previous employees had in the past, which makes it impossible to provide delivery of your packages when not addressed properly.”
Getting a PO Box
If you are new the Island, you can set up a PO Box at either post office. If you are renting space, you can do so, too, but you’ll have to pay a fee.
The Shelter Island Heights Post Office, 6 Grand Avenue, and the Shelter Island Post Office, 45 North Ferry Road, are scheduled to be open for services Monday to Friday, 9AM to 4PM and Saturday, 9AM to 1PM.
Be sure to bring along a mask; you must wear one when inside the building.