The U.S. Postal Service has undergone a long-overdue change in leadership, but in passing the baton, outgoing Postmaster General Louis DeJoy also handed off an epic mess to his successor, David Steiner.
Service is off and the price of stamps and shipping is up, but after decades of bad management, that’s almost a given. The key issue is that, in trying to turn the postal system into a company he knew how to run, Mr. DeJoy added to the bloat rather than trimming the fat.
Mr. Steiner has a chance to make his mark quickly. The service’s year-end financials are now public, and there’s not a bit of good news to be found. Mr. DeJoy’s insourcing campaign has proved quite costly. The addition of nearly 200,000 career employees has brought the total personnel count to a level not seen in 20 years, when the volume of mail was more than double what it is now.
With more people delivering less mail, USPS experienced a $9 billion net income loss. That’s still in line with the losses experienced thanks to the DeJoy plan, but it doesn’t lead to long-term fiscal stability. Mr. Steiner really has only one choice, and that’s to follow the lead set by President Trump in his Oct.15 executive order to ensure “continued accountability in federal hiring” by putting a freeze on new hires now, before the holiday season is upon us in earnest.
