70,000 pieces of delayed mail found in NC postal facilities, next steps provided
A recent audit from the United States Postal Service showed that three North Carolina post offices and a regional center had more than 74,000 pieces of undelivered mail.
The audit, released last month from the Office of the Inspector General, found several issues in postal facilities in Concord, Charlotte and Gastonia.
Delays were caused by management’s failure to report 74,254 pieces of undelivered mail, poor staffing, lack of policy enforcement, insufficient training, transportation issues and machine limitations, according to the audit reports reviewing many locations.
Management at these facilities says the postal service is taking steps to retrain and fill understaffed positions. Below is a breakdown of which facilities were affected and how many pieces of mail went undelivered.
▪ The Charlotte Regional Processing and Distribution Center had 54,421 pieces of delayed mail including express mail.
▪ The Airport Station in Charlotte had 15,128 delayed mail pieces; 14,241 letters, 466 flats and 421 packages.
▪ The Concord Parkway Station had 3,629 delayed mail pieces; 3,285 letters, 322 flats and 22 packages. Here management reported 425 of the 3,629 delayed mail pieces.
▪ The Concord Main Post Office in Concord held 1,076 delayed pieces of mail; 662 letters, 398 flats and 16 packages.
Management responses
The audit evaluated other concerns along with delayed mail including package scanning, carrier separations and transfers, and property conditions.
The distribution center has established monitoring protocols to identify trends, recurring delays, and ensure communication between processing and delivery, said Victoria Smith, director of audit services.
Along with a daily tour that will verify the delivery of all items, she added, the distribution center will also retrain employees, create 27 more clerk positions and 246 mail handler positions. As of June 6, the center hired 164 mail handlers.
Smith said next steps include conducting “service talks” on package handling, separation, scanning, how to record delayed mail and how to manage arrow keys. Arrow keys are master keys used by USPS to access mail and lock boxes. They will update the inventory log to reflect the number of arrow keys on hand and report all missing keys.
She reported that the facilities fixed issues related to safety and security or have submitted work orders to improve property conditions.
Other audits results
In addition to delayed mail at the distribution center, the audit also identified late, canceled, and extra outbound trips alongside problems with scan compliance, security of items and safety.
Out of the 86,572 outbound trips from the center, 37.4% were late or canceled from March 1, 2024 through Feb. 28.
The audit identified other problems affecting deliveries and facility conditions at the Airport Station. It found problems with employees separating and scanning packages improperly along with missing fire extinguishers and other safety violations.
The Concord Parkway Station was found to scan packages correctly but the inspector’s office discovered the post office discarding advertisement mail scheduled to be delivered in March and did not attempt to deliver it. Problems were also found with its contract delivery service.
At the Concord Main Post Office issues including property conditions, proper package separation and arrow key usage were also identified.
This story was originally published July 10, 2025 at 6:00 AM.
