Postmaster Says US Postal Service Ready for the Holiday Rush

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said that the US Postal Service is ready for this year’s holiday rush. He said that the agency has enough staffing and resources to handle the incoming holiday deliveries.

DeJoy also expressed confidence that the US Postal Service will not repeat its disastrous 2020 holiday season that caused widespread delivery delays. 

RELATED: USPS To Offer Slower But Costlier Mail Delivery Services

US Postal Service Is Ready This Year

During a Wednesday meeting, US Postal Service board of Governor's chair Ron Bloom said they’re ready for this year.

The mail service added dozens of package-sorting machines to accommodate an additional 4.5 million parcels a day.

This translates into an 18% increase in sorting capacity. The US Postal Service will also hire an additional 40,000 seasonal workers. 

According to DeJoy, the decision to hire more workers and add more machines are a result of the agency’s abysmal performance in 2020.

“Last year, for a variety of reasons, we were overwhelmed and were not able to meet the demands of the nation,” he said.

This year, the agency is ready and remains committed to timely delivery, “so send us your packages,” DeJoy invited.   

Abysmal 2020 Performance

Last year during the holiday season, the US Postal Service managed to deliver just 38% of non-local first class mail.

Americans and businesses from all over the country flooded their lawmakers with complaints about the historically bad service.

Apart from holiday gifts, medication, paychecks, and bills arrived very late.  As a result, mail delays led to a rise in late charges levied by credit companies and utility services.

Pharmacies began advising clients not to use the US Postal Service when arranging for delivery of prescription drugs. 

The backlog became so massive that later that year, USPS managers were refusing incoming loads of parcels and envelopes.

Facility managers admitted that they had no more room in their centers to accommodate any more mail.  

US Postal Service Depends On Mail Delivery For Income

Unfortunately for the US Postal Service, their income derives mainly from their deliveries of parcels and letters. Congress does not draw up a budget nor provide funding for the agency.

In order to address these massive shortcomings, DeJoy and Bloom launched their 10-year “Delivering For America” plan.

This includes raising prices on shipping rates of certain products. It also meant reducing the service offerings of the USPS. 

Under DeJoy and Bloom’s tenure, the US Postal Service enters the 2021 holiday season with high hopes. Observers say that the two brought the agency momentum that was unimaginable last year.

Exactly a year ago, the US Postal Service was stuck in a legal dispute over the handling of mail-in ballots during the presidential election. The USPS also faced a $169 billion mountain of unpaid debts and obligations.

At the time, it did not present any concrete plans on how to pay these bills. Experts estimated that the agency stands to lose another $160 over the next decade.

Years ago, the US Postal Service was the envy of all post offices and logistics companies in the world. Lately, the agency has fallen to what many called embarrassing levels of service. 

Watch the KGET News video reporting that the US Postal Service gets ready for the holiday surge:

Do you agree that the US Postal Service is ready for the coming holiday rush? Were you inconvenienced by their bad service last year?

Let us know what you think. Share your comments about the USPS in the comments section below.