Mr. DeJoy raised hopes and distinguished himself from predecessors by developing a workable plan to restore the Postal Service to financial viability over 10 years. He even persuaded Congress to endorse it after a fashion because it took a potential federal bailout off the table.
Unfortunately, his plans must be lost in a drawer somewhere in the L’Enfant Plaza headquarters building. The Postal Service‘s financial performance over the last two years shows no sign of improvement, with billions in red ink accumulating quarter upon quarter.
Instead of cutting costs and generating efficiencies by partnering with the private sector wherever possible, Mr. DeJoy‘s course of action looks more like empire-building. Considering that labor accounts for more than 70% of total Postal Service costs, the correct play is to allow things to “right-size” through attrition as the volume of mail going through the system continues to declines as the public uses text messaging and email instead of letters to conduct business.
Mr. DeJoy‘s latest move converted 125,000 postal workers to full-time status, which the postal chief argues will stabilize the workforce and save money by reducing overtime costs. Combine this with spending billions to construct new, possibly redundant facilities, and the dream of true reform appears to be gone.