CHARLOTTE, NC — Today, Postmaster General and CEO Louis DeJoy welcomed 3,500 attendees to the 2023 National Postal Forum in Charlotte. In his keynote address to the annual convention of the mailing and shipping industry, DeJoy extoled the progress the Postal Service is making under its 10-year Delivering for America plan and how the agency’s immediate priorities will better position the Postal Service and its customers for success in the future.
A core theme of the keynote address was the strong progress of the organization and its leadership team in transforming the Postal Service as part of the implementation of the Delivering for America plan. Key recent achievements and areas of momentum include:
- Improving operational precision and improving service reliability – 98% of the American public currently receiving mail and packages within three days.
- Modernizing the postal Delivery and Processing Network – committed nearly $7.6 billion of the plan’s $40 billion self-funded investment budget to create a modernized postal network now underway.
- Growing the business through new products – including USPS Ground Advantage and USPS Connect.
- Creating exciting long term career paths for all postal employees – including the conversion of 125,000 pre-career employees to full-time positions.
“The biggest initiative, and one that will address a condition that has driven high costs and restricted performance, is the redesign of our national processing network and the operating practices we deploy to use it,” said DeJoy. “We must now execute rapidly on our plans to deploy our network. This is the only way to achieve the service and cost improvements necessary for us to fulfill our mission to rescue this organization.”
A key element of the processing network strategy is based upon establishing 60 Regional Processing and Distribution Centers of the size and capacity to handle all volume transported into and out of specified regions; supported by Local Processing Centers and Sorting and Delivery Centers to speed and streamline delivery operations.
“We are going to deploy package sorting equipment with significantly more capacity and sophistication, giving us the ability to execute on strategies to increase throughput and reduce cost. And this will benefit both mail and package flow,” said DeJoy. “Once completed, this new network will be able to accept mail and packages at specified cutoff times and reach millions of delivery points the next day, taking the Postal Service from the leader in the last mile to the leader in the last 150 miles. I believe we can become the preferred delivery provider in the nation, reclaiming volume we have lost over the years and capturing a significant portion of the future growth in the marketplace.”
DeJoy concluded that the Postal Service is at a crossroads. “I know that we can have a vibrant, thriving Postal Service that can realistically serve the needs of our stakeholders in a financially self-sufficient manner. Not by doing what has led to the tragic experiences of the past, but by finding new ways to serve and new ways to operate that benefit our mailing and shipping customers as we together serve the American public.”
The National Postal Forum — taking place May 21-24 in Charlotte — is a four-day conference that hosts thousands of professionals from mailing and shipping industry. Working directly with the Postal Service, the National Postal Forum enables attendees to hear from postal executives, attend classes and network in service of their business.
A video and full transcript of Postmaster General DeJoy’s remarks will be available in a press release to be distributed by Wednesday.