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On Friday, the tenures of the new US Postal Service board members began under pressure as those appointed by President Biden expressed dissatisfaction with the agency’s leadership and the chief of the USPS said it would continue to move forward with the reforms.
The disagreements surrounded Postmaster’s Office Louis DeJoy’s plan to slow down deliveries of certain mail and parcels, a key part of the struggling leader’s 10-year plan to improve USPS service and finances. It was the first meeting with a full roster of Postal Council governors in more than a decade, following Biden’s appointment and Senate confirmation of people for the last three slots in the past few months.
Ronald Stroman, the former postal deputy minister and one of Biden’s candidates, took the more aggressive approach in criticizing DeJoy’s plan, saying delivery slowdowns would hamper the agency’s ability to provide fast and reliable service without federal funding. He said the plan is “strategically ill-conceived, creates dangerous risks that are not justified by the relatively poor financial performance, and does not meet our responsibility as a vital part of America’s critical infrastructure.” USPS expects to save about $ 170 million per year through the changes, a small fraction of its operating budget.
“There is no compelling financial reason to make this change,” Stroman said. “The relatively minor savings associated with changing service standards, even if realized, will not have a significant impact on the financial future of the postal service. ”
Stroman accused DeJoy and existing board members of ditching the Postal Service’s most loyal and dependent customers and said the plan would speed up the diversion of people and businesses from the Postal System. He added that “rarely, if ever” has a change in USPS policy been so widely rejected.
Anton Hajjar, a former American Postal Workers Union official and another recently confirmed Biden candidate, took a more measured approach, saying there was “a lot to like” about DeJoy’s plan. However, he wondered why the slowdowns were necessary before examining the impacts of the investments and other reforms of the postal management plans to be implemented.
The Postal Council met in closed session Thursday, during which Governors and DeJoy considered their disagreements point by point. Anticipating the rare divisive public demonstration at Friday’s town hall meeting, President Ron Bloom, a Trump-appointed Democrat who endorsed DeJoy and his plan, previewed Stroman and Hajjar’s remarks and sought to downplay the discord.
“We do not and will not always agree,” said Bloom, but each of the governors “has the best interests of the postal service at heart.” He preemptively defended the 10-year plan, saying it “further integrates the postal service as a vital part of this country’s infrastructure, providing reliable and affordable delivery of mail and parcels to 161 million American homes. six and seven days a week “.
Last month, the Postal Regulatory Commission reported several problems with the reform proposals, saying the mail slowdowns had not been fully thought out and their success was far from guaranteed. He criticized the postal management for not having piloted the changes or not having engaged with his customers about them, which led to assumptions that were “not based on reality”. The plan would not violate the postal agency’s legal obligations, the regulator said, but the USPS has not shown that the benefits outweigh the disadvantages.
DeJoy pledged Friday to implement most of the regulatory commission’s recommendations, including setting more realistic performance targets, developing new data to support USPS projections, ensuring savings costs are not prioritized over adequate service and monitoring customer satisfaction when implementing the plan. DeJoy said his plan was “not perfect,” but could get there with increased stakeholder engagement. Still, he said most of those pushing back came up with ideas “disguised as solutions, which they are not.” The Postmaster General has defiantly promised to move his plan forward despite any criticism.
“We have to move forward, and we move forward,” DeJoy said.
Stroman, lamenting its inability to stop mail slowdowns, called on the postal leadership to at least ensure it has met its goal of delivering 95% of mail on time in the new delivery windows “as soon as possible”.
“I look forward to working with my colleagues on this topic,” Stroman said.
The postal directorate also unveiled its financial results for the third quarter of fiscal 2021, during which it recorded a net loss of $ 3 billion. USPS CFO Joe Corbett, however, noted that much of that total came from forces beyond the control of management and pointed out that operating revenue had increased by $ 840 million over the course of quarter compared to the same three-month period in fiscal 2020. Excluding factors such as inflation. adjustments to postal liabilities, USPS losses fell to $ 1 billion. A potentially worrying sign for the postal service, parcel volume fell 14% in the quarter from a year ago. Corbett noted that management expected the parcel business to drop from its pandemic peak and said competition in the space had increased significantly.
Delays remained on the rise in the quarter compared to the same period last year, with USPS delivering just 88% of first-class mail on time, compared to 91% in the third quarter of fiscal 2020.
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