USPS Postmaster General Rallies the Troops for 2021 Peak Season Ahead

USPS Postmaster General Louis DeJoy praised employees for helping USPS deliver throughout the coronavirus pandemic in a new video for employees, and he emphasized the importance of the upcoming holiday delivery season.

DeJoy provided some specifics about how the Postal Service was preparing.

An excerpt of his presentation that covered peak season follows:

While our commitment to our mission was significant last peak season, our efforts could not overcome the challenging circumstances we faced.

The service we provided the American people suffered as a result.

During peak, we received package volumes that substantially surpassed our processing capacity. This scenario was compounded by a lack of space in facilities, lack of package sorting equipment, a restricted and poor performing transportation network, and very, very low employee availability.

We are rectifying these shortcomings to ensure that our commitment to our mission can fully translate into the reliable service the American people expect this holiday season.

We are now well into the execution of our peak season plan, which is earlier than any year before.

We are adding capacity by acquiring facility annexes for package processing.

We are installing package processing equipment in delivery units and processing facilities.

We are adapting our transportation and logistics processes to handle the high mail and package volumes we expect.

And, we intend to flex up our network so that we can quickly process, transport, and deliver up to 40 million packages per day, on time, without negatively impacting the delivery of mail throughout the holiday season.

As part of this effort, we expect to hire 40,000 seasonal employees. We also intend to convert 33,000 non-career employees into career employees between now and the peak period.

We want to ensure that we have every available current employee in place.

Your presence is important during the crucial peak timeframe. We will need all hands on deck. Please plan your time off accordingly.

Thanks to your commitment and dedication, and attendance, I am confident we will perform at a high level. I hope you enjoy some well-deserved vacation time this summer.

Thanks again for all the great work, and as always, stay safe.

In the video, the Postmaster General also addressed other topics, including the organization’s efforts to welcome new employees. You can find the video on the USPS Link newsletter for employees.

Ina Steiner

Ina Steiner is co-founder and Editor of EcommerceBytes and has been reporting on ecommerce since 1999. She's a widely cited authority on marketplace selling and is author of "Turn eBay Data Into Dollars" (McGraw-Hill 2006). Her blog was featured in the book, "Blogging Heroes" (Wiley 2008). She is a member of the Online News Association (Sep 2005 - present) and Investigative Reporters and Editors (Mar 2006 - present). Follow her on Twitter at @ecommercebytes and send news tips to ina@ecommercebytes.com. See disclosure at EcommerceBytes.com/disclosure/.