USPS ends peak holiday surcharge as it cuts year-end demand for temporary hires

The Postal Service is looking to cut costs by building up its career workforce and hiring far fewer temporary, seasonal employees to prepare for the year-end holiday season.

USPS is now passing those savings onto its customers, in the hopes that lower prices will help the agency capture a bigger share of a competitive package business.

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy told reporters Tuesday that USPS will forgo a holiday surcharge that the agency added during its peak season in recent years.

DeJoy said USPS isn’t adding the surcharge this year, because “we’ve made a lot of operational improvements that eliminated some of the extra activities that we had when I first got here.”