The U.S. Postal Service Tests Same-Day Delivery

Shante Sapp lingers outside an office building on 14th Street in Manhattan. She’s scheduled to pick up some packages from a photography company inside. She rings the doorbell, but there’s no response. “I don’t know why no one’s answering,” she says, her anxiety rising.

A 27-year-old U.S. Postal Service letter carrier, Sapp works for Metro Post, the agency’s attempt to launch same-day package delivery. Local businesses that sign up can pay the Postal Service a fee to pick up a package in the afternoon and have it delivered to a customer in the city by evening. Sapp has to rush two framed photographs to people in different parts of town and is itching to get a move on. Finally, someone buzzes her in. Soon she’s weaving through traffic again in her white postal van. “Everybody likes getting packages,” Sapp says. “But these are packages that people really want.”