It's been nearly four years since Louis DeJoy was appointed as the 75th Postmaster General of the U.S. Postal Service (USPS), and his reign has been anything but quiet. Less than a year into the position, DeJoy unveiled his grand plan in March 2021: Delivering for America (DFA). This 10-year initiative serves as the backbone of DeJoy's overhaul of the USPS, with the Postmaster General regularly emphasizing his commitment to transforming the agency from an "organization in financial and operational crisis to one that is self-sustaining and high performing."
Despite concerns brought up by postal workers and lawmakers alike, DeJoy has certainly kept his promise to shake things up. As we approach the fourth year of his DFA plan, the Postmaster General has already made numerous adjustments to the agency's operations. To learn about all the major changes DeJoy has made to the USPS so far, read on.
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1 | Higher mail prices
iStockWhen DeJoy first unveiled his DFA plan, he said that it was designed to reverse a projected $160 billion in losses over 10 years for the USPS. In order to do this, one of the Postmaster General's biggest initiatives has been focused on implementing rate changes for postage prices.
"The Postal Service generally receives no tax dollars for operating expenses and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations," the agency states on its DFA website. "Since 2021, we’ve employed the more rational pricing strategy envisioned by Delivering for America. Through judicious and prudent strategies, we’re leveraging a new pricing authority to adjust Market Dominant prices twice a year, as well as existing authority, to optimize revenues across all products. Our prices remain among the most affordable in the world."
Under DeJoy, we've already seen four price hikes for the USPS. The first happened in Aug. 2021, raising the cost of a Forever stamp to 58 cents. Now, we're about to see his fifth increase this month. According to an Oct. 6 press release from the agency, new rates are set to take effect Jan. 21 and will "include a 2-cent increase in the price of a First-Class Mail Forever stamp, from 66 cents to 68 cents."
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2 | Consolidated network centers
iStockAnother major change at the center of DeJoy's DFA plan is aimed at modernizing the Postal Service's network. According to the Postmaster General, the agency is investing $40 billion to do so, and a significant part of the budget is going toward consolidating its mail processing and delivery operations across the country into fewer, larger, centrally located centers.
The USPS said that these new Sorting & Delivery Centers (S&DCs), many of which have already opened throughout the nation, will replace its network of nearly 19,000 delivery units where mail and packages are picked up by carriers to be delivered.
"These S&DCs will allow us to process and deliver mail and packages with faster service between local retailers and consumers through expanded same-day/next-day shipping across the region from one convenient location," the agency added in its second-year DFA Progress Report.
3 | New delivery vehicles
USPSWithin these modernization efforts, updating the Postal Service's mail delivery fleet is also a "critical part" of the DFA plan. In Dec. 2022, the agency announced its commitment to ensuring that 100 percent of new USPS vehicles would be electric by 2026—an initiative that is being aided by $3 billion in congressional funding that was approved under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).
"The Postal Service has been steadfastly committed to the fiscally responsible and mission capable roll-out of electric-powered vehicles for America’s largest and oldest federal fleet. The agency has continually assessed its operational and infrastructure build-out capacity, financial position including IRA funds, and vehicle mix deployment over the past 12 months," the USPS said in a Feb. 2023 release. "The Postal Service anticipates that this commitment of funds by 2028 for both vehicles and charging infrastructure will result in a total of 66,230 electric delivery vehicles and an overall acquisition of 106,000 delivery vehicles."
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4 | Updated technology
iStockIt's not just the USPS vehicles that are getting a new look under DeJoy's leadership. The Postmaster General has also been installing new package sorting machines at USPS facilities across the U.S.
Since 2021, the agency has purchased and deployed 348 of these across its network as a way to expedite package processing. Since the new machines can process up to 3,000 pieces every hour, the USPS has been able to increase its daily package processing capacity to 70 million through these updates.
5 | Streamlined services
iStockDeJoy has put a lot of stock in new, competitive products and services for customers in order to grow USPS revenue. Part of that has meant trying to streamline the agency's shipping services. Back in July 2023, the Postal Service launched a new "enhanced ground solution" called USPS Ground Advantage. This new shipping offering replaced three separate options: USPS Retail Ground, USPS Parcel Select Ground, and USPS First-Class Package Service.
"USPS Ground Advantage is a game changer—for our customers, the industry and USPS. By efficiently and effectively integrating our ground transportation model to the magnificence of our last mile delivery operations, we can now offer the most compelling ground shipping offering in the market,” DeJoy said in a statement at the time. "With USPS Ground Advantage, we are ready to compete for an increased share of the growing package business.”
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6 | Safer mailboxes
clearstockconcepts/iStockWhile DeJoy is largely focused on improving the Postal Service's financial and operational standing through his DFA plan, he has had to tackle a significant uptick in mail theft as well.
In May 2023, the USPS joined forces with the U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS) to introduce a new plan called Project Safe Delivery. This initiative is geared toward combatting "the recent rise in threats and attacks on letter carriers and mail theft incidents by protecting Postal employees and the security of the nation’s mail and packages," according to the agency.
One of the major actions DeJoy has approved under Project Safe Delivery is the rollout of high-security blue collection mailboxes. Since May, the USPS has installed over 10,000 of these safer mailboxes across the country in riskier areas in order to make "access to their contents more difficult for criminals."
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