USPS Plan Cannot Be Delivered As PMG DeJoy Obstinately Claims
The WasteWatcher
When a plan in Washington, D.C. is not working, federal agencies usually create another plan or keep pushing forward. Modifying the plan or starting over is almost never the chosen option, especially when the creator of the plan is also the head of the agency.
The most intransigent current example of this problem in the nation’s capital was exemplified in United States Postmaster General (PMG) Louis DeJoy’s July 8, 2024, op-ed in The Washington Post. Despite ample and growing evidence of significant problems in his 10-year “Delivering for America” (DFA) plan, PMG DeJoy has doubled down again in his comments.
The op-ed states that the plan “is the only comprehensive strategy in existence that can save the Postal Service and empower this indispensable organization not just to survive but thrive. Now that we are on this path, we call on voices who continue to advocate the status quo to recognize that inaction has been proved to create a death spiral for the Postal Service.”
PMG DeJoy not only expresses total commitment to his plan but also dismisses other ideas that may work better and claims his critics do not want anything to change. In other words, no one else is able to fix the USPS except the current postmaster general and no plan will work other than his.
Critics of the plan are not calling for the everything to remain the same at the USPS. They are pointing out what needs to change or be stopped in the DFA plan so that the USPS can become more efficient. And many of them have been trying to get the USPS back on track long before PMG DeJoy took over.
The Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC), members of Congress, and non-governmental organizations and experts in postal issues have been reviewing progress on the Delivering for America plan and suggested how it could be improved so that the USPS achieves the needed financial and service results.
On June 17, 2024, the PRC issued a press release announcing its request “for information about continued large-scale network changes by the Postal Service despite its announced “pause” in implementing parts of the Delivering for America (DFA) plan.” The PRC referred to a May 20, 2024, letter from PMG DeJoy to Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Gary Peters (D-Mich.) that said the USPS would continue its plan to make changes in locations across the U.S. even though there would be a pause in other consolidations. The PRC also wanted to know more about a pilot test and the projected $65 billion in losses under the DFA. The PRC again noted that the USPS is “required by law to request an Advisory Opinion on changes that will impact service on a nationwide or substantially nationwide basis,” which include “certain DFA initiatives,” but the USPS has not yet done so.
The answer from PMG DeJoy to the PRC about making such a request appears in his op-ed, where he denies anything is wrong or that anyone needs to stop him from moving ahead with his plan.
The DFA plan has also caught the attention of Republican members of Congress, who had previously been supportive of PMG DeJoy, as noted in a June 14, 2024, Govexec.com article. In the Fiscal Year 2025 Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act, report language expresses concern “with the USPS’s aggressive approach to consolidating processing and distribution centers into local processing centers and the notification and justification provided to customers and postal workers.”
Citing problems at prior consolidations in Richmond, Virginia and Atlanta, Georgia including reduced mail service and cost overruns, and looking at upcoming consolidations in Fayetteville, Arkansas and Reno, Nevada, the committee wrote that it is “deeply concerned about the potential negative impacts on mail service to the American people, customer satisfaction, and cost overruns potentially undermining the goals outlined in the DFA plan.” The committee “encourages the USPS to halt any realignment, consolidation, or partial consolidation of processing or logistics facilities that provide services to postal districts that at any point over the past calendar year have failed to meet 93 percent on-time delivery performance for two-day single-piece First-Class mail and 90.3 percent on-time delivery performance for three- to five-day First-Class mail.”
The problems with PMG DeJoy’s plans have also drawn the attention of Democrats in Congress. Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee Chairman Gary Peters (D-Mich.) expressed his concerns over the consolidation of facilities at the committee’s April 16, 2024, oversight hearing. He cited disruptions and reduced service which caused costs to go up and “customers are being let down.” He suggested that the USPS should provide evidence that the changes are working before going any further.
As Citizens Against Government Waste noted in a May 8, 2024, blog post, the USPS “is efficient at delivering consistent quarterly losses and poor performance.” It missed the opportunity to reduce spending and when 125,000 temporary positions were converted into permanent positions, which “nearly doubled the cost of these workers. And the USPS is not even getting what it should from these employees due to a decline in labor productivity, which dropped by 2.9 percent in FY 2023 despite mail volumes declining by 8.9 percent.”
The blog post also cited a failure to not only outsource jobs as a cost-saving technique but also increasing insourcing at its 13 Surface Transportation Centers, which distribute, consolidate, and deliver mail.
It would be redundant at this time to say that PMG DeJoy doth protest too much. He should stop defending his plan, which is clearly not working, and start supporting and implementing what will get the USPS to where everyone would like it to be.