HOT PURSUIT
The alert came out Monday afternoon while I was busy producing this week’s edition. And it was something that quite honestly is the best news I have heard for quite a while. The postmaster general has resigned.
That’s right, Louis DeJoy announced he was leaving effective immediately. Previously, DeJoy said he was planning to step down later this year, but Monday’s decision caught many by surprise. Well, kind of.
The Keep US Posted campaign launched an effort to push the USPS Board of Governors to immediately remove DeJoy and to freeze postage rates until his successor can be installed and evaluate the negative impact rate hikes have had on mail volume.
Shortly after the alert was sent out by Keep US Posted campaign, DeJoy announced his resignation.
Regular readers of the Times know that I have not been a fan of DeJoy or the postal service in general. I truly feel sorry for the men and women who work at local post offices and are trying to do the right thing. But they are receiving little to no support from upper management. I’ve even had a postmaster tell me that she can’t even get responses from her bosses when she questions things. There is obviously a systematic breakdown within USPS.
The inept management of USPS has led to terrible delays, astronomical postal increases and overall shoddy service. I can’t tell you how many subscribers we have lost over the past several years because USPS can’t get the paper to them in a timely manner.
In fact, my disdain for USPS led me to write an editorial and letter sent personally to DeJoy in 2023. For the record, and to no one’s surprise, DeJoy never responded. A few months later, I called for him to be fired. After all, he is largely responsible for socking the newspaper industry with 40% increases over the past several years while at the same time providing diminishing services. Nothing happened that time either. But I do know he has been under fire for quite some time.
Under DeJoy’s mismanagement, USPS has racked up losses over $16 billion in just two years. Prior to his sudden departure this week, DeJoy was plotting yet one more gut punch to USPS and the Americans who depend on it: a huge July postage increase as high as 11.6% that had been set to be approved by the Board of Governors in April.
My hope is with DeJoy gone that the July rate increase is paused to allow his successor to evaluate the negative impact of the twice-a-year increases on mail volume and to chart a new positive course to rebuild mail volume and customer confidence. Americans are encouraged to join Keep US Posted campaign to freeze postage rates.
It’s unclear what will happen with USPS. President Trump has said he is considering merging the agency with the Commerce Department, a move that Democrats say would violate federal law. Some federal leaders also say USPS should be privatized.
At the end of the day, I really don’t care who is running USPS. All I ask is that we are leveraged with fair rates and better service. Living in rural America shouldn’t be such a black eye.
Let’s hope that President Trump and Congress can go in hot pursuit of rescuing the sinking USPS ship.