USPS Facility Changes Will Remain Halted Until 2025

Following recent scrutiny from Congress over mail & parcel delays across the country, Postmaster General DeJoy announced that USPS facility changes will cease until 2025. DeJoy’s announcement comes less than one week after a group of 26 senators penned a letter to DeJoy and the USPS Board of Governors calling on him to “pause planned changes” to the agency’s network until the Postal Regulatory Commission can “fully study the potential impacts of these changes.”

USPS Facility Changes Stem from Mail Processing Reviews

The updates to USPS processing and distribution facilities which have caused mail delivery to slow in some parts of the U.S. came as a result of Mail Processing Facility Reviews. USPS initiated the reviews to determine whether it should move some of its mail processing operations to larger regional hubs to streamline operations and improve efficiencies. According to USPS, the agency has initiated reviews on nearly 60 of its 427 facilities across the country.

In general, the facility updates are part of the Postal Service’s 10-year Delivering for America plan, the main goal of which is to turn USPS into a sustainable financial operation after several consecutive years of operating at billions in losses.

The Updates to USPS Facilities Have Slowed On-Time Mail Delivery in Some Regions

Rather than boosting efficiencies, the Postal Service is seeing falling on-time delivery percentages in some regions where it is implementing facility updates. For instance, a March audit of the agency’s repurposed processing and distribution facility in Richmond, Virginia, uncovered that only 65% of First-Class Mail was being delivered on time in the region, marking a 21% decline in on-time delivery from the previous audit.

Postmaster General DeJoy Says Facility Changes Will Remain Halted Until January 1, 2025

In a letter sent to Michigan Senator Gary Peters (who serves as chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee), Postmaster General DeJoy agreed to halt the changes to USPS facilities, stating the following:

“…I agree to pause the movement of processing operations associated with the Mail Processing Facility Reviews. In response to the concerns you and your colleagues have expressed, I will commit to pause any implementation of these moves until after January 1, 2025.”

DeJoy added that pausing the facility updates associated with Mail Processing Facility Reviews means it will be longer until USPS benefits from any potential annual cost savings that the changes lead to. Per DeJoy, USPS expects the facility updates to result in $133-177 million in annual cost savings.