The United States Postal Service has been losing money for about the last 14 years to the tune of at least $87 billion. The COVID-19 pandemic that has swept across the country hasn’t helped matters as people have lost their jobs or have had a significant decrease in the number of hours that they work. The USPS could take a severe blow over the coming months when it comes to how much money it makes. A 10-year plan has been considered that could result in the USPS making more money, but it could also mean changes that many people don’t like. Most of the changes deal with how services will be handled by the USPS, which means that some people might have to wait a few days longer on their mail.
Louis DeJoy is a Postmaster General and has offered a few details about the plan. One important thing that people should know is that deliveries will likely slow down and could take about three days longer to process and get to homes. In some cases, it could take up to five days for priority mail to get to where it’s going. The USPS saw numerous people laid off during the pandemic while former President Trump was in office. Over 120,000 people had to go off the clock and sit at home instead of getting behind the wheel of a mail truck or a personal car to deliver the mail. This number was about 20% of the USPS workforce at the time when workers were being laid off.
It’s not that DeJoy doesn’t like Trump. He donated quite a bit of money to his campaign when he was running for office. He also believes that Trump has had to face unnecessary accusations and criticism from the opposing side. Some people have accused DeJoy of trying to get rid of ballots in order to sabotage the 2020 election to help Trump win as some of the votes that could have been tossed aside could have been for Biden. The USPS is up to $152 billion in liabilities. There has been a call for a change to the infrastructure of the USPS so that it can be better organized. The lack of workers has resulted in an atmosphere that’s unstable for people across the country. If something isn’t done soon, then the situation could only get worse. It’s possible that the USPS could lose about $160 billion during the next decade if changes aren’t put in place pertaining to the way mail is delivered and the price of services. The plan on the table is 58 pages long. Details include lowering some of the expectations regarding how long it takes mail to be delivered along with investing about $4 billion in stores across the country so that they are more effective in packaging and sending mail.
