USPS Will End the Year With “Dramatic Change,” Postmaster General Says
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Like any other business, the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) has had to adapt and grow as customer needs change over time. But as an essential service, any alterations to delivery, pricing, or operations can have an outsized effect on the public who rely on it to send documents, conduct business, and ship parcels. It’s also no secret that the mail service has been struggling to keep its bottom line consistent and become more efficient in recent years. But in a recent announcement, the U.S. Postmaster General said the USPS will end the year with “dramatic change” amid new difficulties. Read on to see what’s in store and how you might be affected.
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During an open session meeting of the Postal Service Board of Governors on Nov. 14, U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy announced that the USPS finished the fiscal year 2023 with a net loss of $6.5 billion . In his remarks, DeJoy noted that his previous promises that the service would break even on its operating costs over the past year were derailed by inflation.
“We are not happy with this result,” DeJoy said.
The news comes just a year after the USPS reported a net income of $56 billion , thanks to an influx of one-time funding from the passage of the Postal Service Reform Act, Axios reports. This year’s total revenue also took a dip, decreasing 0.4 percent to $78.2 billion, while the volume of mail dropped from 127.4 million units to 116.1 million.
RELATED: See a Sticker on Your Mailbox? Don’t Touch It, USPS Says .
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In his announcement, DeJoy also said that the USPS was still in the beginning stages of his Delivering for America Plan to modernize operations. He remained confident that planned changes would help balance the service’s finances .
“We are already providing more consistent, reliable, and timely delivery to America’s businesses and residences,” DeJoy said in a press release. “We are also addressing near-term financial headwinds relative to inflation as we make strong progress in our long-term cost control and revenue-generating strategies.”
But DeJoy also did not hold back on the challenges lying ahead for the USPS to “evolve its operations” and compete with private delivery companies.
“This requirement for dramatic change in our operations and dramatic change in our culture needs to be articulated and amplified throughout our workforce, throughout our oversight entities, and throughout America,” he said during his briefing.
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DeJoy went on to outline some of the changes that would take place over the coming year. The USPS plans to complete more than 20 modernized processing facilities, close more than 40 “costly” annexes and contracted facilities, and open nearly 100 sorting and delivery centers. The service will also roll out a fleet of about 30,000 new delivery vehicles—all while aiming to reduce 28 million work hours and grow its package business by $1 billion.
“All of this will be done with calculation to keep disruption to service to a minimum, but please be aware, that this is not a perfect science,” DeJoy admitted. “The road to success and the scope of the changes we are compelled to make will invariably result in some disruption on any given week, in any given area, for any given service.”
“However, I can assure the American people and our customers that we will respond rapidly to correct for the impacts to service that might result from these complicated changes,” he said.
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These aren’t the only USPS changes customers can expect to see in the near future. On Oct. 6, the service announced it would be seeking approval to raise the price of stamps yet again from 66 cents to 68 cents as of Jan. 21, 2024. The change would mark an overall increase of 32 percent over the past four years, up from a price of 50 cents in early 2019, Reuters reports.
But while some may see the cost increases and changes as necessary for hitting the bottom line, some critics called out DeJoy’s tactics . According to Kevin Yoder , executive director of business mail advocacy organization Keep US Posted, they might actually be holding the USPS back.
“Twice-annual, above-inflation postage hikes are worsening the USPS’ financial woes and trapping it in quicksand, as even more mail is driven out of the system,” Yoder said in a statement, per CBS News. “DeJoy shouldn’t receive any more blank checks from Congress to only raise postage rates, cut service, and drive more debt.”
- Source: https://about.usps.com/newsroom/national-releases/2023/1114-pmg-ceo-louis-dejoy-remarks-during-nov-14-bog-meeting.htm
- Source: https://about.usps.com/newsroom/national-releases/2023/1114-usps-reports-fiscal-year-2023-results.htm
- Source: https://about.usps.com/newsroom/national-releases/2023/1006-usps-proposes-new-prices-for-2024.htm
See a Sticker on Your Mailbox? Don’t Touch It, USPS Says
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Your mailbox serves a very simple purpose: receiving mail and leaving outgoing mail for a carrier to pick up. Still, some of us enjoy sprucing up our mailboxes, adding personal flair, color, or even decals to help an otherwise standard mailbox stand out. But if you notice a paw print sticker on your mailbox that you didn’t add, don’t start peeling it off just yet—it’s likely part of a program run by the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) to help keep carriers safe. Read on to find out what these stickers mean and why you shouldn’t remove them.
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In 2023, more than 5,800 Postal Service workers were attacked by dogs while delivering mail, up from 5,300 in 2022, according to a USPS press release.
Larger cities had the highest numbers of attacks, with Los Angeles, Houston, Chicago, St. Louis, and Cleveland claiming the top five spots.
“Even though a customer’s dog is friendly to most people, it can always have a bad day,” said letter carrier Tara Snyder . “I know, from experience, even when a dog is in the house, customers need to make sure their door is secure so their dog can’t push it open and bite the letter carrier.”
To her point, the USPS writes that “all dogs can bite, even those perceived as nonaggressive.” In fact, many of the attacks that letter carriers report are by dogs whose owners told them, “My dog won’t bite.”
Such an attack can result in consequences for the homeowner, too. According to data from the Insurance Information Institute, the average cost per insurance claim for a dog bite is $64,555, the USPS states.
“When a postal employee suffers an injury, the owner could be responsible for medical bills, lost wages, uniform replacement costs, and pain and suffering for the employee,” they explain.
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To combat dog bites, the Postal Service shared tips on how pet owners can “support safe mail delivery.” These include keeping dogs inside the house or behind a fence, away from the door or in another room, or on a leash.
“Pet owners also should remind children not to take mail directly from a letter carrier as the dog may view the carrier as a threat to the child,” they state.
Mail carriers also follow protocol to keep them aware of areas where dogs might be present, and they’re equipped with scanners to remind them of possible dog hazards, as well as dog warning cards that are added during mail sorting.
In 2020, the USPS added another preventive measure: the PAWS Program . First introduced in Pennsylvania, the program uses mailbox stickers to keep carriers safe.
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The PAWS Program uses color-coded stickers affixed to mailboxes to inform mail carriers about dogs in the area. An orange sticker with a black paw print tells carriers that there is a dog at this home, while a yellow sticker with a black paw print tells them there is a dog at the next house.
Citizens are informed ahead of time that the stickers may appear on their mailboxes. In a notice sent to Lakewood, Ohio, residents, the Postal Service wrote, “Carriers will soon be placing a paw sticker on mailboxes to indicate that a dog or dogs live in the area —yellow indicates dog nearby/orange indicates dog at residence. The sticker will act as a reminder to the carrier that they should proceed with caution, especially when delivering packages to the door.”
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Removing these stickers may do more harm than good, as your mail service can be halted if your carrier feels unsafe. Not only does this affect the home of the dog owner, but it also applies to the entire neighborhood, the USPS said in a previous press release . Service isn’t restored in these instances “until the aggressive dog is properly restrained.”
At the end of the day, these stickers are put in place to “reduce the risk of dog bites and attacks that occur while delivering mail,” which is just another reason you should leave the sticker on your mailbox.
“We all love our dogs,” Kimberly Tilley , acting postmaster for Winston-Salem, told WGHP. “We love our animals, but we … have to take responsibility to protect the carrier and the people around us as well from our animals.”
Tilley added that dog bites are more common than you think, and they can be traumatic for carriers. “Once a carrier has been bit, it sets some fear in them long term for the rest of their life,” she told the outlet.
However, although these stickers are strongly recommended, if you object to having a sticker placed on your mailbox, you can opt out , Kyle Stevens , Southwest Carrier Annex station manager in South Dakota, told KELO in 2021. To do so, the first step would be to contact your local post office.
This story has been updated to include additional entries, fact-checking, and copy-editing.
