ELECTION 2020 BLOOMBERG BUSINESSWEEK What comes after the election could be universal mail-in voting,” he told Fox of the election at stake, they could lead together.” Perhaps, but FedEx and UPS wrenching for the USPS Business on Aug. 13. to something worse. deliver 16 million and 22 million items This much is certain: The USPS can a day, respectively, a sliver of the Postal By Devin Leonard handle the election. The agency deliv- As a business executive committed to Service’s volume, and have no similar ers 433 million pieces of mail a day, showing a federal bureaucracy a thing public service responsibilities. almost half the world’s volume. The or two about efficiency, DeJoy isn’t DeJoy’s critics have frequently said total amount of election mail expected unlike former airline executive Richard he lacks experience with the USPS this year will amount to less than 2% Anderson, who put Amtrak on a path to and is therefore unqualified, but that’s of its total flow from mid-September to profitability but resigned in April after untrue. Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., he grew Election Day. “It’s literally a drop in the a little more than two years of battling up around the logistics business. His bucket,” says Paul Steidler, a senior fellow members of Congress and rail enthu- father ran a small trucking company on at the Lexington Institute, a conservative siasts. Or perhaps a better example is Long Island. DeJoy seemed destined for think tank, who studies postal issues. Marvin Runyon, aka “Carvin’ Marvin,” a a different career, getting an accounting The removal of mailboxes and sort- onetime auto industry executive whose degree from Stetson University in Florida ers isn’t as ominous as it might appear, tumultuous six-year stint as postmaster and working for a time as a certified either. It’s normal procedure for the USPS general was marked by staff departures, public accountant. He returned to New and a direct response to the collapse of mail screw-ups, and a federal investiga- York, though, in 1983, after his father Vote-by-Mail Is the mail volume. Total volume has fallen tion of his involvement in talks to put was injured in an assault by two busi- 33%, to 142 billion pieces annually, since it Coca-Cola machines in post offices when ness rivals. DeJoy took over the family Easy Part peaked in 2006. Volume for the service’s his family held shares in the company. business, which became known as New most profitable product, first-class mail, DeJoy’s ambitions dwarf what those Breed Logistics, and moved it in the early has fallen 44%, and the pandemic has men had in mind. During an appearance 1990s to High Point, N.C. only steepened the decline. Meanwhile, on Aug. 21 before the Senate Homeland The turning point for New Breed with stores closed and so many people at Security and Governmental Affairs came when it won a contract to pro- home, package delivery rose 50% from Committee, he confirmed a report in vide logistics support for USPS mail- April through June. The Postal Service the Washington Post that after the elec- processing centers, refurbishing and is struggling to keep up with Christmas- tion he’ll pursue what promises to be a transporting mail-sorting equipment. level loads at a time when Covid-19 has wrenching transformation of the USPS DeJoy parlayed the deal into business 56 sidelined many of its workers. involving slimmer discounts for non- with clients such as Boeing, Walt Disney, 57 In short, it might not be the most for- profit mailers, higher package rates, and Verizon Communications. “If you If there’s one thing Kenny Montgomery That’s when Montgomery began to machines across the country and the tuitous time to make major alterations and increased delivery prices for dis- have a Verizon phone, I shipped it to thought he could always count on, it fear for the future of the 245-year-old recent removal of 700 collection boxes. to the USPS. But that’s not stopping tant places such as Alaska, Hawaii, and you,” he told an audience several years was the arrival of the U.S. mail. He’d U.S. Postal Service. If this was the ser- “They were caught red-handed doing DeJoy. For all the allegations that have Puerto Rico. “We’re considering dra- ago at Elon University in North Carolina, delivered it himself during heat waves vice Americans could now expect, why this, and the whole country is in an been made about him, the truth is sim- matic changes to improve the service to where he’s a board member. and blizzards in Rochester, N.Y. He wouldn’t they turn to FedEx Corp., uproar,” U.S. Representative Jamie pler. He’s a guy from the business world the American people, yes,” he said. DeJoy assiduously avoids publicity. trudged through the city with a mail United Parcel Service Inc., or some Raskin, a Democrat from Maryland, who’s trying to impose the kind of dis- Specifically, DeJoy said he was eye- (He declined to be interviewed for this sack over his shoulder during the 1991 other private operation that brings said on Aug. 20 at a hearing held by the ruptive changes on a federal agency ing the Alaska Bypass, a USPS program story.) “He’s a pure numbers and oper- ice storm that closed businesses and things to their doors? “If this contin- Congressional Progressive Caucus, a that might be applauded in the private that uses bush pilots to fly not only mail ations guy,” says former North Carolina government offices and left residents ues, we’re going to lose the confidence group of liberal Democrats. sector but are guaranteed to provoke a but also food to areas of the state not Governor Pat McCrory, a friend of cowering in their homes without power. of our customers,” he says. “It snowballs Two days later, Democratic Speaker backlash in Washington. accessible by roads. The Alaska Bypass DeJoy’s. “He doesn’t like BS. He doesn’t They might not have been able to turn from there.” of the House Nancy Pelosi called her Although the Postal Service is required is one of those extraordinary things the give BS, and he doesn’t take it.” DeJoy’s on the lights, but they got their mail. Montgomery says he knows who’s chamber back from summer recess to by law to break even, it’s hardly a busi- USPS does in the name of connecting waspishness was evident when he tes- Last month, however, on the morning to blame: U.S. Postmaster General pass a bill to roll back changes that have ness. It was created to help democra- the country. DeJoy complained that it tified before the House and Senate in of Aug. 1, Montgomery, president of the Louis DeJoy, a former logistics com- taken place during DeJoy’s brief tenure. tize the country by binding it together. cost $500 million a year. The number August, mocking his questioners for fail- local branch of the National Association pany executive and financial sup- It also contains a $25 billion cash infu- Because of this, you can send a letter seemed steep: A spokesman for Alaska ing to do more to help the USPS. of Letter Carriers (NALC), saw his faith porter of President Trump, who took sion to cover the USPS’s Covid-related from anywhere in the country to Alaska Senator Dan Sullivan, a Republican, says In 2014, DeJoy negotiated a deal shaken. Almost 120 of his members over the agency on June 15. DeJoy has losses, a standing House request since for 55¢. As has been noted many times, the program’s cost last year was actually to sell New Breed, which by then had reported to the city’s eight post offices, said he wants to transform the Postal the spring. There’s little chance the it might be the greatest bargain on $123 million. Either way, DeJoy’s com- 6,800 employees, for $615 million to he says, and found that trucks had Service, which is facing an $11 bil- Republican-controlled Senate will take Earth—and one that no private company ments raised questions about the post- XPO Logistics Inc., a company that pro- brought them packages from process- lion loss this year. Widespread inci- up the bill, and even if it did, Trump would offer. master general’s commitment to parts vides trucking support for the USPS ing plants but not a single piece of what dents of delayed mail have given rise would likely veto it. In yet another In the name of saving the USPS, of the country that are more expensive during the holiday season peak. DeJoy he classifies as mail. No letters, no bills, to theories that DeJoy wants to disrupt attempt to call into question the Postal DeJoy is mulling changes that not only to serve. stuck around for a year to run XPO’s no postcards, greeting cards, magazines, the fall election on behalf of the presi- Service’s competence, he’s argued that would affect delivery but could also For now, however, DeJoy is focused North American supply chain busi- catalogs, or fundraising appeals. “This is dent, who has called the USPS “a joke” without these funds there’s no chance undermine the service’s mission. Even on a single initiative: getting Postal ness, then joined the board before step- my 33rd year of service,” he says. “There and questioned its ability to handle the USPS can handle the expected in the best of times his moves might Service trucks to run on time. “FedEx ping down two years ago. He still holds are light days, and there are heavy days, an anticipated surge in voting by mail mountain of postal ballots. “If we don’t have eroded public confidence in and UPS, everybody runs their trucks more than $25 million worth of stock in but I have never experienced a day this fall. So has the Postal Service’s make a deal, that means they don’t get the agency. Coming now, at a time of on time, right?” DeJoy testified. XPO, a holding he says the USPS’s ethics
where no mail shows up.” decommissioning of 671 mail-sorting the money. That means they can’t have WILLIAMS/REUTERS TOM DEJOY: intense politicization, with the integrity “That’s what glues the whole network department vetted. 4. THE VOTE 4. THE VOTE ELECTION 2020 BLOOMBERG BUSINESSWEEK DeJoy also got involved in politics. ○ A USPS DELIVERY BAR CODE SORTER Committee on Oversight president who was discouraging people mailboxes until after the election. DeJoy seems to understand that he’ll Along with his wife, Aldona Wos, he’s and Government Reform. from voting by mail. Protesters congregated outside his homes never transform the USPS as long as it’s given a total of $2.6 million to Republican “It’s essential to getting the On July 29 there were outraged cries in Greensboro, N.C., and Washington, engulfed in controversy. He testified to politicians and causes. He also hosted job done. Forty thousand from Democratic leaders when Marshall beating drums and calling for him to be the House committee that, yes, he’d had fundraisers for George W. Bush in 2006 postal workers have come sent letters to 48 states and the District removed. Ronnie Stutts, president of the contact with some of his friends in the and Trump in 2017. “I certainly don’t see down with Covid-19 or been of Columbia warning that “certain dead- 115,000-member National Rural Letter Trump campaign. But it was to ask them myself running for public office,” DeJoy quarantined. Forty thou- lines for requesting and casting mail-in Carriers Association, visited the post to do something about the president’s told a local business journal in a rare sand! That means there are ballots are incongruous with the Postal master general at USPS headquarters unceasing attacks on vote-by-mail. “I’ve interview four years ago. “That’s just not worker shortages all around Service’s delivery standard.” In a state around this time. “He was almost in put the word out to different people that my thing, although I love politics. I love the country.” such as Montana, he noted, voters can tears,” Stutts recalls, adding that DeJoy this is not helpful,” DeJoy said. supporting candidates.” Connolly and other com- request ballots from election officials said, “I’ve had to hire a bodyguard to In late August the USPS released a This pastime wasn’t without its mittee members as late as the day before the election. escort my daughter to and from school. report showing that on-time delivery *0023-453-21-23 rewards. Wos, a physician, served as sought answers Marshall advised states to urge residents She’s really upset with me. She’s asking for most mail categories had started to RETURN TO SENDER U.S. ambassador to Estonia under Bush, I work to solve them.” As he from DeJoy about to ask for them early. me, ‘Why are you doing this, Daddy? recover. DeJoy has been filming a pub- and Trump has nominated her to be would later testify before the the memos and He also recommended that states Why would you do this?’ ” lic service address with union leaders, the U.S. ambassador to Canada. DeJoy House and Senate, he immersed him- were told in a letter from USPS General send blank ballots to voters via first- Most Americans didn’t get their first some of whom fear the service’s repu- was selected for a position first held by self in postal issues, becoming fixated Counsel Thomas Marshall that because class mail, which arrives in two to look at DeJoy until late August during his tation is being damaged by the contro- Benjamin Franklin. with trying to find operational efficien- neither had originated from the Postal five days, rather than via the cheaper appearances before Senate and House versy. “We’re doing a video showing the In one sense, DeJoy is a throwback to cies. They’d have to be significant ones. Service’s headquarters, they “should not option of marketing mail, which takes committees. As much as he tried to be American public that voting by mail is another era at the agency. For much of As his predecessor, Megan Brennan, told be treated as official statements of Postal as long as 10 days. As with other moves polite, he often came across like someone safe and that the Postal Service is ready, its history, the postmaster general was Congress last year, the Postal Service’s Service policy.” The stand-up talk was under DeJoy, it might have been inter- who’s rarely had to explain himself and willing, and able to process ballots,” picked by the president. Usually the job financial woes had caused it to default on produced by the leadership of the agen- preted differently in a different time; was offended by the very idea of being says Hogrogian, of the National Postal went to a political operative who then $48 billion of mandated health-care pre- cy’s southern area between Florida and Marshall had sent out a similar warn- interrogated by people who’d never run Mail Handlers Union. “I think a joint handed out postal jobs to party loyal- payments for future retirees since 2012. Texas, Marshall wrote, whereas the mus- ing in May, before DeJoy took over, a business. Asked by one congressman message is good. There’s been enough ists. The shining example would be DeJoy tried to operate quietly, as ings about DeJoy’s expectations were pre- and no one seemed to take offense. “I why he didn’t just leave all the sorting negative press generated by the White Franklin Roosevelt’s postmaster general, he’d done at New Breed. But that’s pared by a “midlevel manager.” Even so, mean, it’s so normal,” says Paul Vogel, machines in place until after the election, House that we can’t handle it.” James Farley, who ran the Democratic not easy at the USPS, which has more DeJoy had clearly conveyed a philosophy, a former USPS chief marketing officer DeJoy replied, “In Washington it makes If the attacks on mail-in voting dis- National Committee while simultane- than 630,000 employees, many of and it was guiding managers. who oversaw vote-by-mail operations plenty of sense. To me it makes none.” courage a large number of people 58 ously approving stamp designs. them represented by various unions. In Rochester, the NALC’s Montgomery from 2010 to 2013. “Especially if there DeJoy tried to portray what he’d from casting ballots, effectively disen- 59 Because of mediocre management by In July internal USPS memos surfaced started getting calls from customers who are states that don’t [vote by mail] tra- done in his short stint at the USPS posi- franchising them, the implications go patronage hires, the nation’s mail deliv- warning of major delivery disruptions wanted to know the whereabouts of ditionally.” Nevertheless, a half-dozen tively, saying on-time trucking dispatch- beyond the vote count. What could ery operation almost unraveled in the to come. One of them, described as a their late packages. He says he toured states cited the new letters, along with ing had risen from 89.4% to 97%, which make people more cynical about an 1960s. That prompted President Richard “mandatory stand-up talk” meant to the local plant and saw mail carts over- the vanishing mailboxes, in lawsuits he predicted would lead to annual sav- institution that has been a democratiz- Nixon to sign the Postal Reorganization be given by managers to the rank and flowing with parcels. Rob Stahl, an accusing DeJoy of scheming to suppress ings of $1 billion. Democrats, on the ing force for 245 years? This jadedness Act of 1970, creating the newly chris- file, said late delivery runs from distri- electrical technician at the facility and the mail-in vote. other hand, produced internal USPS could lead to Americans no longer sup- tened USPS, an independent agency bution centers to branch offices would president of the local American Postal At a USPS board meeting on Aug. 7, documents showing that since DeJoy porting its mission—and once that hap- whose chief executive officer would be no longer be allowed. “One aspect of Workers Union chapter, says that’s been DeJoy vowed that the Postal Service had taken over, on-time delivery of all pens, why not charge more for a letter selected by a bipartisan board of nine these changes that may be difficult for the case since area managers imple- would do whatever it took to safeguard classes of mail had plummeted, in some to Alaska? Or why deliver mail at all in presidentially appointed governors. No employees is that—temporarily—you mented DeJoy’s new plan. “They came voting by mail. He dismissed allegations cases by 7% or 8%. DeJoy said he had a sparsely populated parts of Montana more than five could belong to the same may see mail left behind or mail on the down and said that the trucks leave that he was taking orders from Trump. mitigation strategy, but it wasn’t work- and North Dakota, where sometimes party. For the next 50 years, there would workroom floors or docks,” it said. In on time no matter what,” Stahl says. He remained circumspect, however, ing as quickly as he’d expected. “I’m try- postal workers can carry every letter be no postmasters general with close ties other words, trucks might now depart “Sometimes they leave empty.” about the changes he was making, ing to figure that out,” he said. from their route in their shirt pockets? to the White House. without all the mail in the building. Paul Hogrogian, president of the speaking only vaguely about how he At any rate, the postmaster general When the time for that logic arrives, the Under Trump, that changed. The pres- That contradicted what union leaders 44,000-member National Postal Mail was trying to get the USPS to stick to its told the House oversight committee, postmaster general has a plan.
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he said in a video to his new employ- of absenteeism. “In a pandemic, over- little, which was probably ill-advised. He necessarily there is this grand politi- on question that’s everyone’s mind … ees, sounding like a CEO who’d just time is not a nice thing to have,” says U.S. was, after all, someone who’d donated cal conspiracy, but just the incompe- completed a hostile takeover. “I don’t Representative Gerry Connolly, a Virginia $1.2 million to the Trump Victory RETURN TO SENDER tence that we’ve seen when it comes
mince words, and when I see problems, Democrat and member of the House fund, which is devoted to reelecting a PHOTO USA/AP BEHAR/SIPA ANTHONY USPS; LEFT: FROM to the Postal Service.” 4. THE VOTE 4. THE VOTE