ATLANTA — The Postmaster General continues to defend efforts to streamline and consolidate postal operations in the U.S., while once again apologizing for mail delivery delays in Georgia and other major cities.
"The 'Delivering for America' strategic plan embodies our ambition to modernize and transform the Postal Service," Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said Thursday, during his presentation to the USPS Board of Governors. " This massive and complex evolution includes correcting for decades of haphazard decision making and neglect to our physical infrastructure and overall network. Throughout this journey, we recognize that there have been impacts to our customers, especially in regions like Atlanta, Houston and Richmond, where transformation activities have been elevated."
"We apologize for these conditions and are working hard and know that we soon will be delivering the service the American people deserve," DeJoy continued. "Those impacts are inherent to the massive change processes we are undertaking. Those impacts are also the result of errors in execution that we aim to correct quickly."
MORE COVERAGE: Postal Problems
DeJoy and USPS launched the "Delivering for America" plan in 2021, an attempt to transform postal operations "from an organization in financial and operational crisis to one that is self-sustaining and high performing." On February 24, the impact of that plan came to fruition in Georgia as USPS opened a new regional processing and distribution center. The move consolidated operations from four existing facilities in Georgia into one major processing center in Palmetto.
Since then, 11Alive has fielded nearly 3,000 emails from residents about missing and delayed mail and packages. Concerns over missing prescriptions, passports and visa documents, tax documents as well as wedding invitations, among the concerns. To date, 11Alive's request for an interview and visit to the Palmetto facility continues to be denied by USPS communications.
Members of Georgia's congressional delegation have also pushed for answers about the cause of the delay and timeline, prompting multiple inquiries to the Postmaster General's office.
Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock is among them, and issued a series of questions in mid-April and set a deadline of Friday, May 10 for a response. 11Alive reached out to his office on Friday to see if he obtained any answers.
On April 16, the U.S. Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee held a hearing on Capitol Hill where Postmaster General Louis DeJoy testified. Much of that hearing centered on delays in service in Georgia, following the new RP&DC's implementation.
In a tense exchange between Sen. Jon Ossoff and the postmaster general, the Democrat questioned DeJoy over just 36% of mail in the north Georgia region being delivered on time. Ossoff asked DeJoy when service reliability would normalize, and the postmaster general said, "I think we'll get where we need to be in about 60 days."
Ossoff followed up on that exchange again Thursday, sending another inquiry to DeJoy and asking for updates on the data.
"It has been nearly a month since we spoke at the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing on April 16 concerning service failures at the Atlanta Regional Processing and Distribution Center in Palmetto," Sen. Ossoff wrote. "As we have discussed throughout the past few weeks, it is urgent that the performance of USPS delivery in Georgia improve immediately."
"As I have said repeatedly, postal workers working diligently every day to deliver the mail on time deserve the infrastructure and the management competence to enable them to do so," Sen. Ossoff continued.
11Alive has been tracking USPS service performance in Georgia for weeks. While on-time delivery rates for First-Class Single-Piece letters have slowly improved since hitting a low of 25% in early March, the latest data self-reported by USPS shows on-time delivery rates for that category is still only 44%.
During the same period last year, on-time delivery rates were 85.73%; USPS is currently aiming for 92% service performance.
During Thursday's board hearing, Joshua Colin, chief retail and delivery officer for USPS, told the Board of Governors that 160 specialists have been deployed to areas experiencing delays. Those specialists, Colin said, are surveying the plants to help get operations moving more smoothly.
The board, which has the sole power to appoint or change the postmaster general, took no action Thursday. But board member Ronald Stroman did take time to express concerns over mail delays resulting from the Delivering for America plan thus far. Stroman asked USPS to slow down new network changes until service hits target rates and from there, phase in changes over time.
"Slowing down our network changes would accomplish several things. First, it would minimize the impact of any service declines on the entire network," Stroman said. "Second, it would stop the necessity to address sustained service declines in several parts of the country simultaneously. Third, it would allow management more time to examine future network plans and to make necessary adjustments. Fourth, it would provide more time to ensure that the right employees are in place and provide them with the sufficient training. Finally, it would give the Postal Service more time to stabilize the network and ensure the country's confidence in our network and design well ahead of November's presidential election."
"Ballots are going to be fine," Postmaster General DeJoy previously told 11Alive's Liza Lucas in an interview. "Palmetto should be stabilized by then. For election mail, we pull out all the stops."
During Thursday's meeting, DeJoy again made this ask: for more time.
"We have and will continue to work tirelessly to improve our service for our constituents," DeJoy said, "And ask for your patience and understanding as we work to bring the Postal Service up to the standard we know we can reach within the time limits we have for survival."