(NewsNation Now) — A 10-year strategy aimed at bringing financial stability to the United States Postal Service, with plans to slow mail delivery standards and cut hours at some post offices, was announced Tuesday.
Details of the long-awaited plan include a proposal to consolidate underused post offices, hinted at a potential postage rate increase and detailed investments in new delivery vehicles, among other things.
Postmaster General Louis DeJoy and postal executives stressed the need to cut costs and modernize the agency’s operations as its workload increasingly shifts from handling letters to hauling more and more packages.
“This is about the long-term viability of the organization under the two missions that we have that are legislated, that is deliver to every house six days a week and be self-sustaining,” DeJoy said. He announced the plans during a webinar with other postal service officials.
DeJoy said the biggest change would be a relaxing of the current first-class letter delivery standard of one-to-three-days to a one-to-five-day benchmark. Postal leadership said the longer timeframe would apply only to mail going to the farthest reaches of its network and that 70% of first-class mail will still be delivered within a three-day standard.
Other changes from the “Delivering for America” plan include:
- USPS officials say their proposed changes will close a $160 billion budget shortfall over the next 10 years.
- The agency will “consolidate low-traffic stations and branches of city Post Offices” and trim hours and services at retail locations to “meet customer demand.”
- The plan calls for a “more rational pricing approach” which will likely mean increases, though specific increases were not mentioned. The USPS has worked under pricing restrictions, and the plan suggests those caps have hurt the agency’s ability to stay in the black.
- A number of flat material sorting machines will be replaced with packaging processing units.
- USPS will invest in at least 50,000 new delivery vehicles with the promise that they will prove more environmentally friendly than their predecessors.
- New digital tools will improve the ability to track coming deliveries and provide the agency with better data to streamline efficiency.
- The agency is “evaluating the addition of approximately 45 annex facilities to be placed near processing centers in key locations.”
DeJoy called the plan a “very positive vision” that would help prevent the need for future government bailouts.
Democrats have repeatedly called for DeJoy to be removed from his post as delivery times have lagged across the country. Late last month, President Joe Biden named three nominees to the agency’s governing board, which if approved, would give Democrats and Democratic appointees a majority on the panel and the ability to oust DeJoy through a vote. Currently, all six of the board’s members were appointed by former President Donald Trump. The White House didn’t immediately return an email seeking comment.
DeJoy, a major GOP donor who took over the agency last June, has come under heavy criticism for a series of operational changes that slowed mail before the 2020 elections. The policy shifts fueled fears that DeJoy was attempting to sabotage the agency on the behalf of then-President Donald Trump, a vocal critic of mail-in voting, before it handled unprecedented numbers of mail-in ballots. DeJoy has strongly disputed that claim and eventually suspended some of his changes following intense public pushback and a crush of legal challenges.
Despite the concerns, the agency said it processed and delivered at least 135 million ballots during the general election and that 99.7% of ballots were delivered to election officials within five days.
Mark Dimondstein, president of the American Postal Workers Union, said the plan included some positive elements but urged the agency to prioritize on-time deliveries and other service standards.
“Any proposals that would either slow the mail, reduce access to post offices, or further pursue the failed strategy of plant consolidation will need to be addressed,” he said in a statement. “The APWU will proactively engage with USPS’s managers, the Postal Regulatory Commission, leaders in Congress and the public to address these issues.”