DeJoy requests cuts to post office hours, longer delivery times in new 10-year plan

WASHINGTON» Postmaster General Louis DeJoy on Tuesday announced the largest rollback of consumer mail services in a generation, part of a 10-year plan that includes longer firstclass delivery windows, reduced post office hours and higher postage prices.

DeJoy presented his long-awaited strategic vision for the U.S. Postal Service during a Tuesday webinar. Portions of the initiative already made public have raised alarms from postal advocates, who say they could further erode agency performance. Mailing industry officials warn that substantial service cuts could drive away business and worsen its already battered finances.

But DeJoy has cited the need for austerity to ensure more consistent delivery and rein in losses. The agency is weighed down by $188.4 billion in liabilities, and DeJoy told a House panel last month that he expects the Postal Service to lose $160 billion over the next 10 years. Without the plan, Postal Service Board of Governors Chairman Ron Bloom said the agency’s future was “profoundly threatened.”

DeJoy’s plan to make up that projected shortfall largely depends on Congress repealing a retiree healthcare pre-funding mandate and allowing postal workers to enroll in Medicare. The agency also will ask President Joe Biden to order a review of how much the Postal Service should have paid into its pension funds, and credit the mail agency with overpayments.

DeJoy projected that these steps would save the agency $58 billion over the next decade, and that the agency could make up the rest through postage rate increases ($44 billion in new revenue), “self-help” cost cutting in mail processing, transportation and administrative efficiencies ($34 billion), and revenue from package volume and price increases ($24 billion).