Postmaster General announces 10-year plan including longer mail delivery times and cuts to post office hours
Longer first-class mail delivery times and cuts to post office hours across the country are among some of the changes embattled Postmaster General Louis DeJoy announced Tuesday as part of a 10-year plan for the agency.
The massive plan, “Delivering for America,” also seeks to make the Postal Service more competitive and more modern, including a new energy-friendly fleet of delivery vehicles. According to a press release, the Postal Service will also make investments in “advanced package processing equipment; Post Office and facility upgrades; deployment of new mobile devices for carriers; new employee uniforms; best-in-class information technologies across the enterprise; and enhanced training and development to empower the workforce.”
“Our plan takes a holistic view of the organization and is meant to elevate our business, competitiveness, and our ability to meet the needs of the nation,” DeJoy told reporters in a press briefing.
Postal Service employees and unions have been bracing for the release of this plan after changes DeJoy made to the agency over the summer slowed mail delivery.
In a statement to CNN, American Postal Workers Union President Mark Dimondstein said the plan “contains both positive attributes as well as some proposals that should be of concern to postal workers and customers.”
Dimondstein noted that “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,” but applauded the plan to open “46 new annexes to handle the ever-increasing number of packages the USPS processes” as well as its recognition “that the United State Postal Service’s strength is in the people who provide the service.”
Democratic lawmakers have linked DeJoy, a major donor to former President Donald Trump, to the then-President’s anti-mail-in voting rhetoric. The party accused him of attempting to sabotage the Postal Service just as now-President Joe Biden was relying on mailed ballots to deliver him the White House.
In congressional hearings, DeJoy has sparred with Democratic lawmakers over the slow delivery rates, the 2020 election and his forthcoming 10-year plan. Some lawmakers have called for his ousting, and last month, Biden nominated three people to the agency’s Board of Governors, a move some lawmakers hope could eventually lead to DeJoy’s ouster.
DeJoy apologized in February for slow mail during the peak holiday season, telling the Democratic-controlled House Oversight and Reform Committee that it was “unacceptable.”
