Postmaster General proposes new USPS 10-year plan including price increases and delivery delays
A few weeks ago, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy revealed his new 10-year plan for the United States Postal Service, which aims to make the service financially self-sustaining within the next decade. The plan includes increased prices and longer delivery times for some mail, and while the USPS has not released specific plans for how Alaska’s mail would be handled, the plan has already drawn sharp criticism.
Under the current USPS policies, first-class mail is expected to be delivered on time 96 percent of the time, which means within three days within the Lower 48, and within four or five days from the Lower 48 to Alaska, Hawaii and U.S. territories.
According to a recent USPS report, though, the on-time rate fell to 38 percent last December. It came up to 83 percent in March, but has not reached the goal of 96 percent for the last five years.
The USPS has also suffered $87 billion in financial losses over the last 14 years, including $9 billion in losses last year alone, according to the report. While the USPS is not funded directly through Congress, the legislature can allocate funds to support the service, which it has done for the last few decades as a sharp decrease in letters and business mail have weakened the service’s ability to pay for itself.
The new proposal aims to deliver just 70 percent of first-class mail within three days. Longer distance deliveries, including many coast-tocoast deliveries in the Lower 48 and deliveries between the Lower 48 and Alaska, would arrive within five days.
Central to the newly proposed strategy is the use of Postal Service trucks, instead of planes, to deliver mail within the Lower 48. Mail coming from the Lower 48 to Alaska, as well as mail coming from urban Alaska to rural communities, would still be flown by plane. However, the delayed transport times within the Lower 48 could trickle down to delays in Alaska as well.
The plan also proposes increasing the price of a first-class stamp, which could also result in an increase in package delivery costs. DeJoy has so far refrained from specifying how much the price increase would be and what kind of mail it would apply to, but the service is aiming to make $44 billion from price increases over the next 10 years.
The last six months have been especially tough for the USPS, since former President Donald Trump actively interfered with the organization ahead of the 2020 elections. Postmaster General DeJoy was appointed by the Postal Service’s board of governors in May 2020 after the retirement of the previous Postmaster General, Megan Brennan.
Unlike Brennan, DeJoy had no experience in the USPS before being appointed Postmaster General. Prior to his appointment, he was a vocal supporter of and donor to President Trump.
He came under fire last August after he mentioned the possibility of cutting bypass mail subsidies, which are critical for delivering essential goods to rural Alaska. After strong backlash from both sides of the aisle, he announced that he spoke out of turn did not mean to “single out” the program.
Many details of the new 10-year plan have yet to be specified, but a number of interest groups and lawmakers have spoken out against price increases and delivery delays.
“Cuts to service standards for first-class mail, limiting hours at local post offices, and making it more difficult for people to access postal products would adversely impact USPS customers across the nation, including in rural and underserved communities,” said Senator Gary Peters, a Democrat from Michigan who chairs the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, which oversees the USPS.
The American Postal Workers Union released a statement praising the plan’s proposal to upgrade decaying infrastructure, but added 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.”
Nate Adams, press secretary for Senator Dan Sullivan, said that Sullivan was listening to concerns from Alaskans about potential downgrades in service, but added that that USPS is a “self-sustaining entity” that needs to find a way to support itself financially.
Sullivan, along with the rest of the Alaska delegation, met with Dejoy in August after his remarks about bypass mail, and Adams said that “through any restructuring, the unique needs of our state will be Senator Sullivan’s utmost concern.”
Zack Brown, press secretary for Representative Don Young, expressed a similar sentiment. “Congressman Young knows just how unique Alaska’s needs are when it comes to USPS service, particularly in our rural communities. It is vital for USPS to secure financial stability, but it must not come at the cost of service to rural Alaska,” he said.
President Biden recently announced three new nominees to the postal board of governors, which has the authority to replace the postmaster general and is currently made up four Republicans and two Democrats, all of whom are Trump appointees. If the Senate approves the nominees, the Democrats will have a five to four majority on the board and could move forward with replacing DeJoy. Otherwise, further details about how DeJoy’s new plan would affect rural Alaska will be forthcoming.