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Cost cutting could lead to mail delays, new postmaster general warns

The Postal Service is losing money and the new postmaster general is trying to stop that.

The biggest part of the plan is that mail could and will be delayed to help slash overtime, The Associated Press reported.

The changes are outlined in a memo obtained by the AP titled “PMG Expectations and Plan.”

The plan, apparently set by Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, will help make “the USPS fundamentally solvent which we are not at this time.”

DeJoy was called a major donor to President Donald Trump by the AP.

He’s also a logistics executive, according to The Washington Post.

The memo attributes the money problems to a 10-year decline in mail deliveries which were made worse because of the coronavirus campaign. The postal service lost $4.5 billion for the quarter that ended in March.

By cutting overtime to hundreds of thousands of postal workers, it could mean that there will be no after-hours deliveries. If mail is not sorted at distribution centers in time for routes, then it will be kept for the next day, The Washington Post reported.

Normally postal workers don’t leave mail behind, but instead make multiple trips to make sure packages and letters arrive on time, according to the newspaper.

“One aspect of these changes that may be difficult for employees is that ― temporarily ― we may see mail left behind or mail on the workroom floor or docks,” one document obtained by the AP said.

Some postal service leaders said the agency could run out of money between next March and October due to the decline in coupons and bills being mailed. Analysts said the USPS needs to focus on becoming a low-cost package carrier as more people shop online at home, the Post reported.