A recent audit by the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General has uncovered significant service problems at the St. Louis and Hazelwood, Missouri postal processing and distribution centers, which serve much of Southern Illinois.
The audit—requested by Congressman Mike Bost—found persistent delays, lost packages, and substandard service impacting families, businesses, and municipalities. Between June 3 and June 4, 2025, more than 2.5 million pieces of mail were delayed at the St. Louis Processing and Distribution Center alone.
Contributing factors cited include staffing shortages, poor supervisor oversight, inefficient sorting, inadequate labeling, and limited maintenance of sorting machines. The audit also reported that scan rates for loading and unloading mail fell well short of the 93 percent target, hampering accurate mail tracking. Issues such as network outages, unclosed placards, and unrecorded extra trips further compounded the problem.
Auditors also found that registered mail was not always transferred with proper documentation or hand-to-hand procedures—raising risks of loss or theft. From May 2024 to April 2025, 56 percent of all outbound truck trips were either late, canceled, or unscheduled extras, often due to driver shortages, contractor no-shows, and dock congestion.
The Inspector General issued 12 recommendations to address these problems, including filling vacancies, improving oversight, easing dock congestion, and ensuring proper handling of registered mail. The Postal Service has agreed to implement all recommendations by January 2026.
A similar audit in 2022 revealed many of the same issues, but the report notes that complaints have persisted despite earlier promises of improvement.
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