The U.S. Postal Service will be delivering its fiscal year (FY) 2025 results soon after Halloween. It will leave a sour taste that will be like getting only Sour Patch Kids, Sour Gummy Worms, and Sweetarts in the bag during trick or treat. The results will not only continue the frightful losses that have happened in every quarter since 2009 but also raise questions about how Postmaster General David Steiner will respond and act to move financial results in a more positive direction.
Glowing expectations of improvements to the financial condition and core functions of the USPS were set forth in the Delivering for America (DFA) plan. The stated goal of the DFA when it was released on March 21, 2021, was to quickly transform the postal service, reduce costs, and break even in FY 2023. But on November 14, 2023, the USPS reported a loss of $6.5 billion for FY 2023 and on November 14, 2024, the USPS reported a loss of $9.5 billion, of 46 percent greater than the FY 2023 loss. The USPS is expected to lose less in FY 2025 than in FY 2024, but it is likely to still exceed $9 billion.
New USPS leadership provides the opportunity for new direction. Five years of mounting losses and chronic service performance failures under the DFA plan is enough and should prompt PMG Steiner to halt those aspects of the plan that have made things worse and focus on generating immediate and long-term improvement. There are several actions that the USPS can take to strengthen finances and raise service performance standards while continuing to deliver mail and packages together, six days a week, to every address everywhere in America.
