US Postal Service Moves Forward With Unpopular DeJoy Plan To Slow Some Mail Delivery, 1st Class: NPR

[appalachiablue]

Last edited Sat Aug 7, 2021, 11:24 AM - Edit history (1)

NPR, Aug. 6, 2021. - Excerpts, Ed.

Two of the newly confirmed members of the U.S. Postal Service's Board of Governors spoke out Friday against Postmaster General Louis DeJoy's plan to slow delivery of first-class mail. But the board took no steps to stop or even modify the 10-year plan despite the concerns expressed by the board members and regulators.

Ronald Stroman, one of three new governors named by President Biden, said that intentionally slowing first-class mail and package delivery by changing service standards is "strategically ill-conceived, creates dangerous risks that are not justified by the relatively low financial return, and doesn't meet our responsibility as an essential part of America's critical infrastructure."

Stroman, a former deputy postmaster general, noted at the Board of Governors open meeting that the country was "only beginning to emerge from a global pandemic" and is now struggling with the delta variant and that mail delivery was below pre-pandemic levels. He added that the changes "disproportionally impact our seniors, middle- and low-income Americans, [and] small businesses, who are our most loyal customers and most dependent on us."

.. DeJoy announced his 10-year makeover of the Postal Service, "Delivering For America," in March. It aims to ensure the post office's financial stability by streamlining operations, ending reliance on air transport for long-distance mail, as well as investing in a new fleet of delivery vehicles. New governor Anton Hajjar said there "is a lot to like" in DeJoy's plan, but he expressed concerns about ending the use of air carriers to move the mail, saying he hasn't seen the proposed savings "quantified." Most controversially, the plan would lengthen expected delivery times for much first-class mail...

Read More,
https://www.npr.org/2021/08/06/1025488630/the-postal-service-presses-forward-with-unpopular-plan-to-slow-some-mail-deliver

- USPS will pay DeJoy's former company, XPO Logistics, $120 million to take over two key sorting, Aug. 6, 2021,
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100215709370
*********
- DeJoy Still Under A Cloud of Corruption But Also Inexplicably Still Heading the Postal Service,
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2021/8/6/2044233/-DeJoy-still-under-a-cloud-of-corruption-but-also-inexplicably-still-heading-the-Postal-Service

U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy appeared at the first U.S. Postal Service (USPS) Board of Governors meeting since President Biden's appointees were seated Friday, and got an earful from at least one of those members. That was in the public meeting, on Thursday they had a private discussion, the contents of which haven't been leaked yet. But I sure hope that this issue came up: "DeJoy maintains financial ties to former company as USPS awards it new $120 million contract."

DeJoy's former company, the contractor XPO Logistics, will get that $120 million over the next five years and DeJoy could realize as much as $23.7 million from the company in the next decade. DeJoy and his family foundation, as well companies he controls, have divested somewhere between $65 million and $156 million in XPO shares, filings and tax documents show. But his family businesses still have ties to XPO in the form of four office buildings in North Carolina that they lease to the company. That's where DeJoy will get those millions from in lease payments.

The arrangement, amazingly, was cleared by ethics officials the Postal Service according to a previously unknown inspector general report requested by lawmakers. He filed all the right paperwork, according to the IG. That doesn't mean there's anything that doesn't stink about this. (DeJoy, however, remains under investigation by the FBI for his political contributions and company activities involving XPO.)...

[msongs]

1. gonna take a long time for his new trucks to deliver to hawaii nt

[appalachiablue]

2. What a plan, why is he still around?..

[gab13by13]

3. Frustrating isn't it?

[appalachiablue]

4. Indeed, it's all fixed, what a mess

[Midnight Writer]

5. Slower, more inconsistent service will surely work to turn USPS profitable.

I joke, of course, but the GOP has had it in for the Post Office ever since the Reagan days.

It's not surprising to see a Republican appointee try to sink the whole operation.

[appalachiablue]

6. All of that, and why isn't the gangsta gone?

Because the stacked USPS Board of Governors has the say so I think. More dysfunction.. RR was the beginning of the end, sorry to say.