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USPS says it wants to save $3 billion a year. The result could be slower delivery for some mail.
The U.S. Postal Service on Thursday said it needs to shave more costs from its operations to get into better financial shape. To do that, the postal agency wants to overhaul its delivery logistics, resulting in some customers likely seeing a slowdown in their mail delivery.
The new plan, which will be filed with the USPS’ regulatory commission, comes about three years after the mail service embarked on a 10-year plan to stanch billions of dollars in losses and put the agency on the path to profitability. The 10-year plan, implemented by Postmaster Louis DeJoy, also slowed delivery standards, with the service guaranteeing five-day delivery instead of its previous three-day delivery window.
The proposed changes will shave about $3 billion a year, the USPS said on Thursday. But, it added, “Depending on location, time and distance, expected time to deliver will increase for some ZIP code pairs.”
The USPS has also boosted the price of Forever stamps several times within the past few years, prompting some critics to say that customers are paying more for worse service. With the proposed changes, the slower service could be felt by rural areas and for mail that needs to travel long distances, DeJoy told the Washington Post.
“At the end of the day, I think some portion of the mail showing up 12 hours later, I think it’s a price that had to be paid for letting this place be neglected,” DeJoy told the publication.
Reached for comment, the USPS pointed to a fact sheet about the proposed changes, which notes that the plan would have no impact on 75% of first-class mail.
The combination of higher prices and slower delivery raises the risk that the USPS will lose more customers, critics say. That would come at a time when the postal service has already seen a sharp drop in first-class mail volume, which has slipped to 28% to 46 billion pieces in 2023 from almost 64 billion pieces in 2014, according to USPS data.
“Any effort to degrade service while raising prices is a recipe for a death spiral at the Postal Service,” said Rep. Gerry Connolly, a Democrat from Virginia and critic of DeJoy’s, in a statement emailed to CBS MoneyWatch.
He added, “This is the second time Postmaster General DeJoy has proposed lower service standards. He might as well announce a return to delivering mail by horse and buggy.”
Losses at the USPS
All told, the Postal Service has amassed more than $87 billion in losses from 2007 through 2020.
Details were unveiled by the Postal Service ahead of a September 5 meeting in which the proposed changes will be discussed with stakeholders before being submitted to the Postal Regulatory Commission, the USPS’ regulatory body.
Election mail and holiday shipments won’t be affected because the proposed changes would not take place until the next calendar year, officials said. Medications also should continue to be delivered at their current speed, or faster, under the proposal, officials said.
The plan could also increase the speed of some mail delivery, because of changes to better utilize existing ground networks, officials said.
The proposal reflects the Postal Service’s move to overhaul its processing and transportation network with an emphasis on large regional hubs, something that is already beginning to take place in Atlanta; Richmond, Virginia; and Portland, Oregon.
—With reporting by the Associated Press.
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Paul Whelan, freed in prisoner swap with Russia, tells other American detainees: “We’re coming for you”
Washington — Nearly seven weeks after the Russians handed over Paul Whelan on a tarmac in Ankara, Turkey, the Marine veteran stood on the steps of the U.S. Capitol with a message for other Americans who are held abroad.
“We’re coming for you,” he told reporters Tuesday night after he met with lawmakers. “It might take time, but we’re coming.”
Whelan said he spoke with lawmakers about how the government can better support detainees after they’re released.
“We spoke about how the next person’s experience could be better,” he said. “What the government could do for the next person that’s held hostage and comes home — the care and support that other people might need, especially people that are in a worse situation. There are people coming back that lived in the dirt without shoes for three years, people that were locked up in hideous conditions for 20 years. They need support.”
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The U.S. secured Whelan’s release in August in one of the largest prisoner swaps since the end of the Cold War. The complex deal came after months of sensitive negotiations between the U.S., Russia, Germany, Slovenia, Poland and Norway.
As part of the deal, Russia released 16 prisoners while the Western countries released eight Russians. Whelan was released alongside Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, Russian-American radio journalist Alsu Kurmasheva and Vladimir Kara-Murza, a U.S. green card holder and Kremlin critic.
Whelan, who had been the longest-held American detainee in Russia, was arrested in December 2018 when he traveled to the country to attend a friend’s wedding. He was convicted of espionage in a secret trial and sentenced to 16 years in prison in 2020.
Whelan, his family and the U.S. government vehemently denied that he was a spy and accused Russia of using him as a political pawn. The U.S. government considered him to be wrongfully detained, a rare designation that put more government resources toward securing his release.
But a deal to secure his freedom was long elusive. He remained behind bars as Russia freed Marine veteran Trevor Reed and women’s basketball star Brittney Griner — both of whom were detained after Whelan’s arrest — in prisoner swaps with the U.S.
The U.S. said it pushed for his inclusion in both exchanges, but Russia refused. It led to Whelan advocating for his own release from a remote prison camp, calling government officials and journalists to make sure that he wasn’t forgotten.
When the plane carrying Whelan, Gershkovish and Kurmasheva landed in Maryland on Aug. 1, Whelan was the first to disembark. He was greeted by President Biden, who gave Whelan his American flag pin, and Vice President Kamala Harris.
“Whether he likes it or not, he changed the world,” Rep. Haley Stevens, a Michigan Democrat, told reporters Tuesday.
Whelan’s case and his family’s constant pressure on the U.S. government brought more attention to the cases of Americans who are wrongfully detained by foreign governments.
Haley said Whelan is a reminder to other Americans considering traveling to Russia that “you have a target on your back.”
Whelan said it’s been an adjustment acclimating to life back in the U.S., especially learning the latest technology like his iPhone 15.
“I was in a really remote part of Russia,” he said. “We really didn’t have much. The conditions were poor. The Russians said the poor conditions were part of the punishment. And coming back to see this sort of thing now is a bit of a shock, but it’s a good shock.”