David Steiner started his tenure as Postmaster General with an attempt to clear the air about the future of the United States Postal Service (USPS), indicating his lack of desire for the national courier to be privatized.
“I do not believe that the Postal Service should be privatized, or that it should become an appropriated part of the federal government,” Steiner said in a video to employees Thursday. He also said he believed in the agency’s current structure “as a self-financing independent entity of the executive branch.”
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Steiner officially took on the role Tuesday, four months after previous USPS head Louis DeJoy stepped down.
The new Postmaster General’s statement comes as the future of the USPS has remained uncertain under President Donald Trump. The president had previously floated the idea of privatization during his first administration, and had said earlier this year that there’s a possibility the agency gets moved under the control of the Commerce Department.
In a Congressional hearing last month, multiple industry stakeholders pushed back against privatization, with some calling on Steiner to halt certain aspects of the Delivering for America plan until the new USPS leadership team examines the full impacts of the program. That often-criticized turnaround plan was first introduced by DeJoy in 2021.
While he didn’t mention the 10-year Delivering for America program by name in the six-minute video, or in his accompanying separate letter to USPS employees that outlined the same points, Steiner touted the transformation plan for having brought the agency “substantially closer to private sector logistics practices.”
“Pricing and product strategies have improved competitiveness,” said Steiner, who himself was a FedEx board member before taking his post at USPS. In recent years, the agency has raised its mail prices each January and July. While it skipped the January hike this year, the courier increase the price of a first-class Forever stamp from 73 cents to 78 cents on July 13.
One of Steiner’s primary focuses is the on-time delivery of mail and packages, which has been a central concern among detractors of the 10-year turnaround plan. Implementation of that reform included a network consolidation designed to streamline mail processing, but delivery delays become more prominent last year in and around cities like Atlanta, Houston and Kansas City, Mo.
In a May audit, the USPS Office of Inspector General indicated that the changes in recent years have negatively impacted service performance, even after the courier lowered its own service standards.
To kick off 2025, the agency said it expected to deliver 87 percent of two-day first-class mail on time, and 80 percent of the three-to-five-day first-class mail on time. These numbers are down from last year’s goals of 93 percent and more than 90 percent, respectively.
According to the USPS, this year’s on-time numbers have failed to reach the lower expectations, with two-day deliveries in the second quarter making their deadline 81.8 percent of the time. The three-to-five-day deliveries have an on-time performance rate of 66.8 percent.
On July 1, USPS said it will no longer count Sundays and federal holidays as part of its on-time delivery metrics. The agency doesn’t deliver mail on these days, but its mail processing operations run every day.
Despite the rough 2025, the former Waste Management CEO said he was “certain” that the USPS will continue to improve and achieve its on-time performance objectives.
During the video, Steiner also stressed the Postal Service’s commitment to “operate in a financially self-sustaining manner.” USPS saw a rare $144 million net income in the first quarter, but ended the second quarter with a $3.3 billion net loss. The agency expects to end this fiscal year with a $6.9 billion net loss.
“The Postal Service needs to be on a realistic path to match costs to revenues on a consistent, long-term basis,” Steiner said. “I believe this is achievable, but only through effective organizational commitment, alignment and execution to drive new operational efficiencies and generate sustained revenue growth.”
Steiner’s start at USPS came just days after members of the American Postal Workers Union (APWU), ratified a new three-year labor contract with the service that will run through Sept. 20, 2027. That union represents more than 190,000 clerks, mechanics, vehicle drivers, custodians and employees in administrative positions.
The APWU had been one of multiple USPS labor groups that have been critical of Steiner’s appointment as Postmaster General, with much of the concern existing due to a potential conflict of interest with his FedEx ties.
