(UPDATED Feb. 19, 2025, 5 p.m. ET with reaction from Package Coalition)
The U.S. Postal Service will soon begin searching for a successor to Postmaster General Louis DeJoy after he informed the agency’s board of governors on Monday that he intends to step down from the post in the near future.
“While there remains much critical work to be done to ensure that the Postal Service can be financially viable as we continue to serve the nation in our essential public service mission, I have decided it is time to start the process of identifying my successor and of preparing the Postal Service for this change. The major initiatives we are currently endeavoring are multi-year programs and it is important to have leadership in place whose tenure will span this future period,” DeJoy said in a statement released Tuesday. “After four and half years leading one of America’s greatest public institutions through dramatic change during unusual times, it is time for me to start thinking about the next phase of my life, while also ensuring that the Postal Service is fully prepared for the future.”
He did not announce a deadline for his departure.
DeJoy was appointed to lead the Postal Service in the spring of 2020 with a mandate to address operational inefficiencies and a financial crisis stemming from years of underinvestment and a regulatory business model that limited innovation. Under his leadership, officials at the Postal Service quickly developed a new management structure and 10-year transformation plan to put the quasipublic agency on a path toward financial sustainability and improved service delivery.
When he took over, the Postal Service had 60 days of remaining cash, had incurred $90 billion in losses over two decades and had more than $20 billion in deferred facilities maintenance. Projections were for the independent agency to lose an additional $200 billion over the next decade.
Initial streamlining efforts were criticized by Democrats on Capitol Hill for potentially slowing mail delivery of ballots during the presidential election, but his disruptive style has produced results and relatively broad support. The modernization effort has improved network efficiency, increased revenues and resulted in a major capital plan for electric delivery vans. The mail organization, for example, has shifted a large amount of mail delivery from air transport to less expensive ground transport. Transportation costs have been reduced by $2 billion and mail processing costs are down $1.5 billion per year, according to the Postal Service.
During his tenure, the Postal Service has invested more than $18 billion to modernize infrastructure, created new products and adjusted pricing. During the first quarter of fiscal year 2025, the organization had $140 million in net income after years of losses.
One of his biggest achievements was persuading Congress to repeal a crushing requirement that the Postal Service prepay health plans for retirees, something no other federal agency is required to do. The Postal Service was also instrumental in delivering 930 million COVID test kits during the pandemic.
The Postal Service is on track to reduce costs by more than $4 billion annually, raise revenue by more than $5 billion and adjust its operating network to integrate the delivery of all mail and package categories.
The Postal Regulatory Commission last month questioned the effectiveness of DeJoy’s Delivering for America initiatives, saying they are negatively impacting service for certain products and rural communities, and that cost savings are overstated.
“The USPS Board of Governors and the next postmaster general should use this transition to take stock of the Delivering for America Plan and objectively assess what has worked and what has not worked, to make any necessary course corrections. This review is necessary in light of mounting evidence that the current plan is not working,” the retailers under the umbrella of the Package Coalition said in statement. “The Postal Service should abandon plans to insource work that can more efficiently be done through public private partnerships. Providing business and mailers last mile access to the postal network ensures affordable and reliable package delivery services for its customers. This approach has proven effective in reducing costs and stimulating profitable mail and package volume growth and will successfully fill its obligation to serve all Americans, especially those in rural areas.”
In his letter, DeJoy described the challenges involved in the turnaround effort.
“Postmaster General is a demanding role made more difficult by the devastating condition I found the Postal Service in when I arrived and the almost unceasing resistance to change — without offering any viable solutions — from stakeholders motivated by both parochial and political purposes,” DeJoy wrote in his letter to the board of governors. “The simplest and most obvious ideas and solutions receive illogical and irrational scrutiny from those that have no responsibility for ensuring the financial viability of the Postal Service. This, combined with industry lobbying, has held the organization back in the past from making the necessary changes. I have fought against this, and as a result I believe that I can fairly say that my tenure has been one of high expectations and vigorous action.”
Chairwoman Amber McReynolds said the board of governors “greatly appreciate his enduring leadership and his tireless efforts to modernize the Postal Service and reverse decades of neglect.”
DeJoy said he will help with the transition to a new leader. Finding a top-notch replacement could be difficult, said Derek Lossing, a former logistics executive at Amazon and American Eagle Outfitters, who runs the e-commerce supply chain consultancy Cirrus Global Advisors. The $303,000 salary is much less than vice presidents of logistics make in the private sector and the postmaster general’s ability to restructure is shackled by regulations and political constraints, he said on LinkedIn.
“You have 535 bosses (US Reps and Senators), an IG that’s investigating everything you do, & a Postal Regulatory Commission working to (often seemingly) undermine your vision at every step of the way. Oh, and by the way, you’re under pressure to transform the financials of the organization, all while having an inability to make service changes, nor with the ability to ‘not serve’ places that UPS and FedEx refuse to go. Costs be damned, you are required to serve them all with, shrinking volumes, aging infrastructure, 525K employees, while managing 31K Retail locations (that can’t be closed even if unprofitable), & 250K vehicles,” Lossing wrote.
The Trump administration’s aggressive plan to reduce the size of the federal government could eventually lead to efforts to privatize the U.S. Postal Service, according to some Washington policy watchers.
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