USPS Ten-Year Plan Gains Momentum With Improved Delivery, Better Finances

Announced In 2021, Delivering For America Transforms Postal Operations & Services

U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy updated employees on the Postal Service’s progress under the Delivering for America (DFA) plan during a series of recent stops across the nation, including at the Seattle Priority Mail Annex (shown above). DFA enters its third year propelled by big changes attained in the last two years.

WASHINGTON, DC — The U.S. Postal Service released the Second-Year Progress Report on Delivering for America (DFA), the 10-year plan to transform postal operations, finances and service — while maintaining six-day mail delivery and expanding seven-day package delivery.

DFA was published in March 2021 to transform the Postal Service from an organization in financial and operational crisis to one that is self-sustaining and high performing.

In the first two years since, the Postal Service has advanced core DFA strategies and initiatives including attaining the new Postal Reform law in 2022 that ended retiree health benefit prefunding.

“As we enter the third year of our Delivering for America plan, there is a new energy and vibrancy at the U.S. Postal Service,” said Postmaster General and Chief Executive Officer Louis DeJoy.

During a series of recent stops across the nation, the PMG updated employees on the progress with the DFA plan.

“As I travel the nation meeting with the great men and women of the Postal Service, it is clear the investments we are making are paying off — and it is showing through our improved delivery for the American people and our business customers. The progress we’ve made in the last two years demonstrates that our plan is realistic and achievable. We’re just getting started.”

In its second year DFA accomplishments include:

— Aligned for Operational Excellence: The USPS is intensely focused on becoming the high-performing organization the public expects. Today, its Executive Leadership Team is aligned around achievable goals with a level of accountability consistent with top-performing organizations in private industry.

— Positioned to Financially Break Even Over Next 10 Years, Despite Inflation: Just two years into the 10-year plan, projected losses for the decade have been reduced by more than half — from $160 billion to $70 billion.
That is significant progress toward the 2030 10-year break-even goal. Even with the unexpected burden of inflation, the Postal Service forecasts it can achieve break-even operations by the end of DFA’s 10-year period.

— Fostering Service Excellence: The USPS has reversed years of declining reliability and are closing in on meeting the primary objective of 95 percent on-time performance across all mail types. In fiscal year 2022, all market-dominant products experienced increased service performance over FY2021. In FY22, 95.6% of packages were delivered on-time; On average, 99.9% of packages were delivered in less than three days.

— Converting 125,000 Employees to Full-Time Positions: The USPS has converted 125,000 pre-career workers to full-time career employees since October 2020, including 50,000 conversions between April 2022 and March 2023.

The USPS has committed nearly $7.6 billion of the plan’s $40 billion self-funded investment budget to create a modernized postal network and work is underway, including:

— Six New Sorting and Delivery Centers: The USPS has started to open larger, centrally located Sorting and Delivery Centers (S&DCs).

— New Regional Processing and Distribution Centers Underway: The USPS processing network is also being overhauled, with a new, flexible construction program to create a modern, streamlined and effective network of new or reimagined, clean, spacious and bright processing facilities. RPDCs, in some instances, more than 1 million square feet in size, will enable new, effective workflows that simplify the movement of all classes of mail and packages.

— Increased Daily Package Processing Capacity to 60 Million: In the past two years, the USPS has purchased and installed 249 new package processing machines across the nation. These machines, coupled with operational precision improvements, have increased daily packaging capacity processing to 60 million.

— Updating and Electrifying the Nation’s Largest and Oldest Federal Fleet: Modernizing the mail delivery fleet is a critical part of DFA. In December 2022, USPS announced plans to acquire 106,000 new vehicles (see page 9).
Additional milestones in the first two years of Delivering for America include enactment of the Postal Service Reform Act; new service standards for select Market Dominant and Competitive products; implementation of new pricing authority; and , new offerings to expand package delivery, including USPS Connect.