The USPS will pause its efforts to improve ground transportation beginning in August, citing peak season and elections, according to a letter Postmaster General DeJoy wrote to lawmakers on Monday. He sent the letter to clarify what Delivering for America initiatives the USPS would and would not be suspending after having agreed to part of their request last week, stating that “confusion continues to proliferate in some circles about the work we have underway to rescue the United States Postal Service.”
Lawmakers had asked the Postal Service to pause consolidation efforts after learning of severe mail slowdowns in Georgia, Texas, and Virginia.
Ever defiant of oversight and heedless of criticism, PMG DeJoy sent a 6-page letter accompanied by a 3-page status report to Senator Gary Peters on Monday. The USPS issued a press release on Tuesday that linked to DeJoy’s letter, explaining: “The letter outlines the paused implementation status of the Mail Processing Facility Reviews, as well as the ongoing 2024 activities that will continue to advance and are part of the nearly $15.3 billion in committed self-funded investments.”
Many merchants, small businesses, and online shoppers were impacted by the slowdowns in Houston, Texas during the 2023 holiday shopping season. Houston television station KHOU covered the story extensively, at one point reporting that a postal worker at the affected facility alleged the USPS couldn’t fit replacement machinery into the building to replace two parcel sorting machines it had removed.
Lawmakers also called for the USPS to pause other parts of DFA , such as a controversial plan to reroute Nevada’s mail to Sacramento before returning it to Nevada, according to a local news station, which reported that the plan was not on DeJoy’s list of paused initiatives.
In Monday’s letter to lawmakers in a section titled “Ground Transportation,” PMG DeJoy stated:
“The Postal Service runs approximated 50,000 truck transport trips a day. Because of the nature of our public service mission and the poor design of our network, we had averaged less than 40% trailer utilization significantly driving up our costs. We will continue to design and implement better routings for both national and local transportation to support our efforts to be more efficient and reliable. We expect these initiatives to continue through August, at which point we will begin to pause to accommodate the demands of the elections and peak season. This effort involves ongoing schedule adjustments, routing changes, cross docking, and trip elimination.”
Two years ago, the USPS moved all First Class Package Service (FCPS) for packages to ground (packages with longer destinations used to be transported by air). Last year, USPS consolidated FCPS, Retail Ground, and Parcel Select Ground, into a new USPS Ground Advantage service. And this year, USPS is moving most of its US air cargo from FedEx Express to UPS.
Sellers can only hope that there won’t be a repeat of the Houston debacle or any other disruptions during the upcoming holiday shopping season.
*** For the holidays, I close my shop ***
As an artisan jeweler on Etsy, my sales typically go to women who purchase for themselves, and rarely, I sell jewelry as gift items as my new price points are now over $300.
At the beginning of December, I now close my shop for the holiday season. There are ALWAYS reasons to not ship during the busy season, so, I just avoid it.
The data is clear…the POST holiday season is increasingly becoming a very hot buying period. Between receiving holiday gift cards and post holiday discounts, the consumer remains strong through January.
When I put my Etsy shop on vacation at the beginning of December, I also announce that my shop will re-open on December 26th with new designs. I am never disappointed as my sales at the end of December make up for those weeks I close my shop in early December.
If possible, avoid holiday postal issues by avoiding the holiday buying season.