The consequences of letting DeJoy continue to kill the USPS
Many of us have been very unhappy, even outraged, that Biden seemed so oblivious to the importance of protecting the USPS. Biden simply took no interest in the USPS and we will pay a bigger price than most people believe.
And let's dispense with the lame argument that the President can't get rid of the PG. It would have been the easiest move ever to have canned DeJoy. Biden named a majority of board members and obviously could have selected only people who were willing to act in favor of the USPS. But he didn't. And Biden had 2 additional openings that sat vacant without even nominees for many months. Let's look at the consequences of not taking this simplest of all possible actions any time during Biden's 4 years. And let's not forget that Schumer was also culpable, as he gave no priority to getting Postal Governors confirmed, or insisting that they can DeJoy as condition of their confirmation by the Senate.
What are the consequences? The obvious consequences are that DeJoy continues to wreck the USPS, intentionally driving down morale and service levels in order to justify outsourcing to for-profit companies, with which he maintains major conflicts of interest.
A second issue is that the postal workers are represented by the American Postal Workers Union. Biden tried to portray himself as a friend of the union workers, yet he allowed this union-buster to stay on 4 years, and on into Trump's 4 years. WTF? How could he do that?
A third consequence is rarely mentioned. The USPS fleet of vehicles is very important. it is highly visible, symbolic, and largely welcome in communities throughout the country. And this is particularly true of rural communities, or was before DeJoy started killing rural routes, forcing many rural people to get their mail only at a box in the post office. To the credit of some of Biden's appointees, there was a good plan to convert most of the USPS carrier fleet to electric vehicles. There have been some delays, and DeJoy has fought this every step of the way, but the Governors held firm as long as they could. However, since the election, DeJoy has been acting to kill the entire order of electric vehicles, and the contractors (Oshkosh) is only too willing to keep providing gar-burners, because that means they don't have to do any innovation.
This is a major problem. The postal EVs would have demonstrated to all parts of America, especially rural America, that clean energy vehicles are practical, efficient, clean, reliable and cost-effective. This would have significantly changed the national attitude about clean energy, but it is an opportunity lost.
I realize this is forum is about "The Way Forward". It is obviously too late to can DeJoy. And it may already be too late to save the EV contract, requiring Oshkosh to deliver what they promised. But we should be pushing the Postal Governors to stand firm on this, demanding that DeJoy and Oshkosh stick with the plan.
This is so sad because it would have been so easy to have canned DeJoy and avoid this problem altogether.
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Our mail carriers provide their own vehicles, usually run-down SUVs. If they do get a maintenance allowance, it's not enough. I can't tell you how much oil our mail carrier has dripped on my driveway. He said he knows and is sorry, but they won't help him fix it. I have never seen a USPS vehicle anywhere near our neighborhood. Why is that?
We have noticed that since about late November, the mail is excruciatingly slow, if it comes at all. Packages never show up when they're supposed to. We didn't even get our mail yesterday. I subscribe to USPS Informed Delivery, and nothing it said would be coming yesterday actually arrived. Despite that, it also says nothing will be delivered today. I suspect the mail carrier's vehicle broke down again and maybe someone will bring yesterday's mail today. 