DeJoy's changes will give USPS its best holiday season performance ever, officials say

The U.S. Postal Service said it is well positioned to handle a blitz of mail and packages ahead of the holiday season, though it will confront its busiest time of the year after once again hiring fewer seasonal employees. 

USPS will bring on just 7,500 temporary workers to help the agency complete processing and delivery efforts, with employees having started as early as October and staying on as late as mid-January. That is down slightly from its target of 10,000 hires last year and precipitously from 45,000 in 2021. Postal management has maintained that its efforts to convert nearly 200,000 part-time staff to full-time, career employees over the last several years has mitigated its need to onboard seasonal workers. 

Joshua Colin, USPS' chief retail and delivery officer, said changes the agency is implementing as part of Postmaster General Louis DeJoy's plan to overhaul its operations and stabilize its finances have also put the Postal Service in a better position this holiday season. USPS has stood up 83 sorting and delivery centers, which consolidate final preparations before mail and packages are delivered, which Colin said has increased capacity.

It has installed 158 new package sorting machines since last year’s peak season and is now delivering 95% of First-Class mail and packages via ground transportation. The Postal Service boasted it can now process 60 million packages per day. 

USPS is reinstituting a surcharge this holiday season after opting not to do so last year, with prices increasing between 30 cents and $16 depending on the shipping service and weight selected. 

The mailing agency is rolling out its first custom-build electric vehicles during the holiday, putting the battery-powered version of its “next generation delivery vehicles” on the road in Athens, Georgia, and Stockton, California. It has commercially available EVs active in 20 areas around the country. 

The USPS inspector general said in a report on Monday that management's plans contain some risks, including not being able to accommodate the incoming volume surge, gridlock with surface transportation and scheduling issues for staff. The IG found USPS took steps to mitigate those risks, however, such as by delivering packages before and after carriers' regular route times, deploying additional equipment and sharing employees between facilities.  

“We believe we are poised to perform even better than last year, even better than any holiday season [in] years past,” Colin said. 

DeJoy announced earlier this year he would pause some of his key reforms ahead of the election and holiday season as lawmakers and other stakeholders raised concerns the changes would lead to significant delays. Steve Montieth, USPS’ chief customer and marketing officer, made clear those efforts—such as consolidating processing operations into 60 mega-centers around the country—will soon resume and the agency will release a schedule for the changes in January.