Attention to me at this time. Thank you for attending. Just briefly for those that may not know your background you are the 75th postmaster general. The first one is behind you i can see, Benjamin Franklin, that he was the inventor of the post office, Postal Service. You are a native of new york. You went to college in florida and then he went back to your families a business and you built it up, moved it to greensboro, North Carolina, build it into one of the larger Logistic Companies in the united stateses ultimate merged with another company of been involved in philanthropic activities at my alma mater, Duke University among other places so thank you for giving us your time today. Let me ask you at the outset, when you agreed to become postmaster general did you realize youre going to get this much attention . Because its not normally the most famous position in washington, d. C. And about many people can name your immediate predecessors. You are very well known. Did you expect you would get this much attention . So david, ifhi i may, i think when i accept the role we need remember the situation of the Postal Service was in at the time. It was right at the height of the beginning ofin the pandemic, and were having significant financial consequences at the time. I was kind of urgently asked to join, and i thought most of the attention would be around the issues of running out of cash in september of 2020, loss going from 7. 8 billion to 20 billion in the projection and having no help in sight. Thats what i thought the attention would be spent. Instead, we had a lot of media and political attention on things that were very much removed from that. And that was the unexpected sense of attention. Ninetysecond thoughts about having taken a job . You had a comfortable life in greensboro, North Carolina, very active in philanthropy and your wife was ambassador. Or with the manometer to be an ambassador to canada. Any second thoughts about taking this job . No, none at all. This was a fantastic organization with very committed people. I think we have a very promising future if we get a few things aligned and move forward with them. I i think i have a certain typef expertise and availability also and willingness to engage in this type of activity. I am happy. Im excited. Ive had a warm welcome from the team here at the Postal Service. We arehe working hard to move forward to get to the election and get on with our ambitions to be an exciting player in the marketplace. So as i may have told you i have a special interest in the Postal Service because myal fatr worked in the Postal Service his entire career, retired when he was 55. And i had a er summer job once at the Postal Service. My job in college when i was at duke in between freshman and sophomore years i was a mail carrier which was one of the best jobs i ever had and i enjoyed it saw him a a special interest in Postal Service. I never got invited back for the second year and i dont know whether you can figure out whether, i didnt do it good job in the first year, you can take out the reports. I thought i did a good job but they they have high standards for carriers and it is a chop job. Its not easy. It was that easy. They gave me a can of mace for when dogs come after you. So on the first day on the job a dog was coming after me so i got out the maze cant and i sprayed it, unfortunately, three houses later the owner of the docking up and said, did you spray my dog . I said yes. She said, couldnt use his blind and has no teeth . I i said it did no, im sorry. Anyway, that was the last time i used the maze and thats made to i didnt get offered the job for the second summer. We have about 400 or 500,000 dog bites a year. Its a big problem are carriers. Okay. Maybe i just picked the wrong dog, i dont know. Im going to ask you a number of questions which young been asked ad nauseam im sure but for our audience i would like to go through them again. When you took the job, we asked by anybody at the white house or the president to slow the mail down . Did anybody say slow it down . No, no, no, a million times no. I said very little conversation with the h administration. Postal service is an independent organization. I report to a board of governors, bipartisan board of governors, and thats where my plans for what we do at the Postal Service get approved, goes beyond my authority. So to date we have no real input, no input from the white house on anything, nor with any authority to direct me to do anything. While that may have some great ideas, i dont know, i havent heard any yet concerning us, but all of these would be our normal leadership process and the board of governors and thats how we run this organization. Nobody said slow the mail down and nobody called julie audited you doing a good job of slowing the mail down. They didnt call you about that . No one said slow the milton from the white house, no. Some of the actions you take and let mewn go through some of them and t ask you why you did some of them. So, for example, it is that you eliminate overtime for postal workers i guess to save money. Was at right . No, no. David, thats a little bit of misinformation. We ran 13 overtime before i came here. C 13 overtime now. Part of the reason were running over time because of the pandemic, we have a a lot of absenteeism in certain hotspots and we need, so that that we supplement our labor. But in thehe long what that is a problem for the Postal Service and after we get through the election of the pandemic that is something a very much going to be focusedy on. We incur 5 billion over time each year. It brings instability into workforce. Thats one of the things im looking at doing trying to bring stability into the organization, its good for everybody. Another thing you did is you had some mail sorting machines and you kind of took them away from like the Postal Service somehow. Why did you get ride of those mail sorting machines . Again no, no, no, 1 million times no. I didnt do that either. I dont know the circumstances come out of if i mentioned this in the show when we were talking prior, the circumstances when i came into the organization where we had just reached congress when we would lose 20 billion, run run out of cash in september and have no answer to that, we had no are terrorist act loan was on the sidelines can we couldnt get to negotiate a deal. thats what i i focused on in e beginning. These sorting machines, theres a process thats been around for aa long time. They ran at about 3540 utilization. There are experts inot the field that understands our capacity to process mail and so forth. These machines are costly, costly to keep up with that type of utilization those decisions were made at the field level. I heard about sorting machines when read in the newspaper. What about the collection boxes . We are all familiar with his blue collection boxes they seem in peoples neighborhoods and it is said you get rid of a lot of those collection boxes. Is that truth and why did you do that . No, its not true. We have about 140,000 collection boxes throughout the nation and that hasas been, you know, our address base has grown significantly so it gives us larger geographic areas to cover. The mail volume has dropped significantly over the last ten years to somebodys collection boxes have very few pieces of mail. Its been an ongoing process over the last ten years. We remove about 3000 collection boxes a year. Theres a process thats within the organization, spread throughout the area as to which ones get moved. That was another what i read in the paper. There are plenty of places when we make these changes we also evaluate other access and you can access another blue box which would be close by. You can go to one of our 30,000 post offices spread the route which is basically in every American Community or you can give it to our mail carrier who shows up up and out six days a week. This is part of the input that we make when we take these boxes away. When the other charges that has been made is you told workers if the mail is a ready to be delivered, leave and go out on your route without all the mail. In other words, you told people to dont wait y for all the mail to be given to them, just get out onut the route and start delivering what our behalf. Is that fair or true . No, no, y no. The big change, so lets talk about the two big changes that i made one was to run our trucks on type typing we went about 4850,000 trucks a day. They were running late and the running based on judgment. This is the essence of the key attribute in running a network and if our trucks dont run on time, downstream processes which are mail carriers dont run a time and our plants dont produce, dont produce to a schedule and create chaos and additional cost. I worked with the team to get those trucks to run on time with the mail in them. That was that the direction. That was a good plan. We couldve had a better execution but we are recovering from that right now. The other big change is reorganizing the Postal Service, 55,000 administrative personnel throughout seven regions in the nation. When i leave here to me thats going to l be, and i believe we will see this manifests itself, one of the most impactful changestf that i will make becae it is creating better lines of control and authority and responsibility and clarity. Those with were the two changet i made. The rest are pieced together stories. So the was a federal judge in Washington State that has against issued an injunction saying all these things that are being done, dont do them for a while. The question is, aredo you going to appeal that decision . We are in negotiations right now. I didnt look at my email from late last night until this morning because i knew i would be on the show and it did want to get upset or anything, but many other things that judges have decided that we already announced we were doing a month and a half ago when i put a stop to some off these things that were normal processes for us. When we are in negotiations with them and hopefully we will come to a conclusion without having to appeal them. The American Public needs to know we are prepared and committed to deliver election mail, and these rulings are really not necessary. But at the end of the day we abide by the law and the decisions will be made between us and the Justice Department whether we peel them or not. The decision to appeal or not, is that the Postal Service decision, the Justice Department decision or the white house . Who was in charge of making that decision . At the white house. White house is not the Justice Departmentus will be the entity that organization that leads us through this and makes the decision. In conjunction with our Legal Department which is working very closely with them. One of thehe other decision s made by a new york judge last week as well, and he said yes to make certain that all election mail is considered firstclass mail. Is that a problem for you . Are you going to appeal that decision . That is a typical process, hes making decision on something that we already do. First class is a definition of a class of and as a certain treatment to that class of mail. Youre talking but the physical handling of ballots and in many cases we treat ballast with a higher priority than firstclass mail. We will be advancing will maintain the processes we have always in the past which is we see about wee want to get it through the systemwa and get it delivered quickly. You had a call with i guess 50 secretaries of state in the country from each of the states relating to a postcard i guess you would set a out to people about the mail and you said in that call, as reported in the press, that maybe you shouldve consulted them. What was all that about . Will i think what i said is, we got so heres what its about, okay . The Postal Service is probably the most, it is the most stable part of our mail in vote process over the last several years. Our processes have been the same. Delivery time is up and so for the benefit at our messages been the same. Its basically vote early. Its like you dont send your mothers day card on mothers day. If you want to get it before mothers day. I dont knoww if my mother is washing but votes are more important. I suggest you take a look more care than you would a mothers day card. States, theres 50 states all with different requirements ands they are fishing some states have made the decision yet. We set out at the beginning of the year to recognizing it would be more mailin votes this year to educate the public and work with the state electoral boards. We had election committees here from our poor, our board has had election committees to my Management Team come to our Union Leadership is involved right down to our districts and our people throughout the whole nation. The purpose of that is to educate the public on our physical distribution processes and the timing of voting. We have a website. We have commercials we put out, videos, meetings. We have made like 10,000 contacts throughoutt the country at different electoral personnel. This was a the postcard we set out was a general statement to the public to basically request your bound about earlys going to vote by mail and vote early. It was a high level message, and in some cases it wasnt hot enough and it conflicted with a couple of the states and thats where we got some of the complaint. Say though, we had a great deal off appreciation from many states in her efforts to educate the public on voting by mail. Did you say your mother was watching . No. I dont know if she was but if she was, i wanted her to know that mothers day card is important. And your mother is alive . She is. Did she ever say why did you take this job . Did she ever say that to . She said whys everyone picking on you . Let me go back to the firstclass mail situation. If somebody wants to mail their ballot in, the best thing to do is mailed as soon as possible, is that right . I would say yes, as much time as you can give us to handle it, the better. It just makes common sense to get your c vote, get your ballot and make a decision and get in early. Some people say the Postal Service loses lots of money and maybe it could be more efficient. I think one of your mission is to make it more efficient but shouldnt the Postal Service make money or should a breakeven or doesnt matter if it loses money . Itttt matters. It kind of violates the law if we dont cover our costs. We are legislative to be self sustained, and it just kind of amazes me how that has never entered the discussion. We lost 10 billion a year without change, we plan that will happen for the next ten years. With regard to efficiency theres two ways i look at that. One is, we are required, our universal Service Obligation is to deliver to every house, every address in america, 161 billion addresses six days a week. That is an inefficient thing, a private sector businesses would not be able to do that. We deliver mail on mules in the grand canyon and on small airplanes up in alaska each day. Its really thats our mission and i am a defender of that and believe in that. Longterm thats our strength. Those types of inefficiencies exist just in the nature of what we do. Then theres our operational which what im working on with the team and we have goals that will get you right after the election. At least we can get at them and they are not small. They are real dollars and that will help us build sustainability. Some people say why dont we privatize the Postal Service and take away fromhy the government completely and let the private to makeorgot how Something Like thatt work . You have you on whether that is a good or bad it gets . I think its a a bad idea. First of allde i dont think it wouldd work is not something the American Public would want to see. Second of all, we would who would get them youll run down the grand canyon for 55 cents . In the private business that wouldnt happen. The last thing is we wouldnt require legislature for that in we know how that goes. Not anything on my agenda nor do i think its important. Some people have said the Postal Service is losing money for two reasons in addition to some of the things you mentioned, the mules going down the grand canyon, but when it is because of email people not sin as much firstclass mail as it used to and firstclass mail is relatively speaking more profitable. Is that fair or o unfair . Some of it is an inaccurate statement, that firstclass mail is down and we have an industry that has evolved that compete with us, and that is electronic communication, Digital Marketing and social media and so forth. Whether firstclass mail is unprofitable or not, this is what i look at it, david. We have a network in network costs us 80 billion a year to to deliver our service. We charge 70 billion and thats the difference, the 10 billion, and how we get at that involves both legislation, freedom from that tenure model, where waiting decision on that, and as driving Operational Efficiency getting costs out a a new revenue growh which were plantst for. Its a bunch of Different Things that drive together, where, in fact, we make or lose money is still under discussion here under my tenure. Some people say in fact, i think the president has said a lot of Companies Like amazon, they are using the service and they are not fully paying the full freight of what it costs. Amazon is usingt all these for ecommerce and amazon and other ecommerce companies. Is it fair to say youre not charging enough . Is that a big problem . I dont, i mean, i think when we, you know, if you look at the Postal Service try to cover its costs, and thats a breakeven goal, and reinvesting it into our infrastructure, we are short, and price is one of the tools in our toolbox to get there. With regardet to amazon pricingi think the team a has to go shou, i think everything is in the realm of respectable pricing, within the realm of being a good deal for everybody right now because were 10 billion short but its not four times the price or anything likee that. On the 10 billion to think you will get the money from congress to make certain you have enough money to deliver the election mail and to make sure you breakeven for the year . Thats a mouthful in that question. Okay. So first of all, Everyone Needs to understand that we have enough money to get through the election. We had plenty of money for the election, plenty of resources for the election and we will handle the election, the whole organization is committed to that. With regard to congress, everybody should know, who doesnt know, we really dont get money frome, congress. Theres lots of different bills floating around that promise to give us money. They are not even close to getting a pass, and look, we take pride in the whole selfsustainingob objective here at the organization so we dont want, we are not looking for handouts. We are on a selfimprovement nation right now. I have asked congress and the treasury to fund as for covid losses. With volume being done we still delivered anywhere and felt those calls should be covered. Its a range of seven to to 10 billion i asked for it other than that we are kind our own and less theres a major legislation that comes about which i dont see. And if they just gave us money, we would i be back in two years with whatever the amount is amount is. We have broken Business Model and we need to change that. Congress doesnt give you money but does congressman jim banks from time to time, how did you meet your deficit every year and let you borrow the money from somebody . We dont pay our bills in some cases. We have the deferment at some of our retirement payments and we to borrow from a treasury oriented banking system. We have about 15 billion. We didnt get to a deal when i came, the deal with the treasury for 10 billion under the t cares act, was kind of dead, and i call treasury and we worked, i worked with the treasury secretary to get it back on the table, and we came to reasonable accommodations for us to borrow money. Lets talk about covid. Many companies have an working remotely during covid. H i guess the Postal Service cant work remotely because you have to deliver the s mail. How do you manage the Postal Service remotely like manye othr companies, or have you just not been doing anything remotely . Within our Administrative Offices we have many that are working remotely from the administrative side. We have basically two stories here on the pandemic. One is the story of the tragedy that whole nation has experienced. With had about 10,000 of our coworkers contract the disease. We have about 2000 out right now with it and we have lost 91 of our coworkers and its really been a tragedy. Like it is for the rest of the nation. The other side of the story is extremely impressive and most of it doneem before, all of that militant before ie got here and this is one of the great things about the postalut service, how can we gear up and focus on National Emergencies, our efforts in terms of getting ppe out to the workers, our procedures, putting in procedures and so forth, take care of the workers. Unionwork with our leadership to give us work release so we can move forward. The Union Leadership was very involved with us. Im looking l at safety and our plants into her characters, and this all came together very quickly. Am we deliver to 161 million homes, 99. 8 before the pandemic, you know, getting there. Its like 99. 5 so we still fulfill our mission throughout the nation on that. Another crisis you begin with is the fires in the west coast. How have you been able to deliver the mail if you have been able to and how are the postal Workers Health affected by the andnd so forth . How are you dealing with that . Again, very similar type of impressive, the most impressive thing to meet in the organization is our ability to respond to these National Emergencies where people, not only are the communities dislodged from their homes and have these issues, but we live in those communities. Our work, our employees live in those communities yet they still have to go out. Its like the first symbol of restoring normal behavior is when the mail start showing up again. Its really Something Special to see. I went there to make charts last week. We had the hurricane hit lake was bad. Nd it you could see how bad come out toward the city was under way to one of our delivered units and most of these workers didnt have lights, they may not have water in in the homes but ther, and working hard to deliver mail to their communities. From a safety and administrative standpoint, we have airquality tests, masks retaken different types of equipment we get people to go out. O we maintain the safety of our employees and we work with our Union Leadership to make sure everybody agrees that it is safe to proceed, and then we do work, work the heroic work we do. When i was going up, i believe i have a right, the mail was delivered twice a day. Its hard to believe that but i think it is true and on saturdays as well. You think the mail needs to be delivered on saturday as well . Do you have a view on that . I do. I think that, i think that 16 week delivery is legislated. I think its a hard thing to get changed and i also think its the strength of the organization. Its something im taking a gamble on that we can use to connect to the American Public in a better way to entice them to use us more. Remember, we also have, we have 32,000 post offices in every community. We get about a billion visits a year to these destination locations, and a combination of continued contact with the American Public and our carriers, its one of the major reasons why were the most trusted organization in the nation. Potentially expanding someot of our connection in the communities with our post offices, thats a Big Initiative of mine. Part of my reorganization was to separate and have come to establish a whole delivery and retail and delivery part of the organizationon headed by experienced new chief of retail and delivery officer here, long Time Employee and she also has, its a digital background, i. T. Background and we are very, very much excited about the things were going to do in that area to help us grow. How many total employees doesnt Postal Service actually have . 640,000. 140,000 thats. 640,000, and the composition of what are men, women, white, africanamerican, do you know . We have about 500,000 unionized employees. We have as us at 100,000 thats it we are about 40 minority thats here in the organization, and i would guess we reflect malefemale statistics of the population. Its really an unbelievable reflection of the American Public, and we are a big impact to the american economy. So if i wanted to send a letter overnight to someplace in the united states, i have i guess three big choices, ups, fedex, and the Postal Service. Why should i think the Postal Service . Lets suppose im not similar with any of them and and i wano get a letter delivered overnight to somebody. Why should i pick the Postal Service . In general we are cheaper. We deliver on time and i will say, i would give my plug that its good for america because we need to be sustainable some asking for everyones business out there. E. Okay. We talk a moment about your own background. You grew upmo in new york and yu ultimately went to college i think in florida. Dad has i understand a small trucking business is that right . Guest yes, sir. How to take a small trucking business that had less than a dozen employees, may be less than 20 employees and build it into one of the larger Logistics Companies in the united states. How did y what was your skill set tos do that . My skill set was in public accounting, as an auditor, i had many Different Companies and that gave me a background to look at different operational aspects of different industries. When youre in the logistics business, we handled every mouse Aircraft Parts and cell phone. The type of experience helps with. One of the big pushes was, iel didnt like talking so i needed to move on to something else. It was the beginning when i got my running, the beginning of the introduction of technology, Information Processing technology into business. I looked to broader to different or selves, technology and engineering and i was a good salesman. I convinced people at that time to move forward with my authorization, one step at a time. Once we started to have a model out there, it gained wide acceptance would became selective in the business we did. You also moved the company to North Carolina 20 plus years dont have a you North Carolina accent, you still have a North Carolina accent . I chose to use my new york accent today. Cs okay, for people who dont know, what does the logistics help me do . Service youre providing people in your Logistics Company . I always looked at many Different Things to Different Companies do but we manage transportation and set up the centers. Our leading Service Strength was in technology. We were often rated one of theed top providers of complex Logistics Solutions forio organizations in the world. These are Companies Like boeing, verizon, disney and we ran call centers, planning, we planned inventory, took orders and process them is schedules and ship them to consumers and a lot of it o interactions between us, our clients and their clients and that is what we do. We probably move about 60 billion of goods, one piece at a time each year. Ultimately merge your company with another Logistics Company and you stayed there a while and icicthen left it and in recent years, human involved in other matters, is that right . Yes. Coming back to the Postal Service, what is the single biggest challenge you face . I assume not related to the election issue which we discussed but the single biggest challenge the Postal Service faces is what in your s view . We need to change how we approach the marketplace and we are Mission Driven, we have a Mission Driven culture we are trying to move into a winning culture, need to operate with more precision, introduce more products into the market to spare Revenue Growth and we need advance ourselves in all aspects of what a normal business would be. I look at it more as an opportunity we have as opposed to the challenges. Sthe challenges everyone knows, down. Is going how do we stop c that . How do we reverse that from happening . How do we supplement that works we have ideas going on, who have high cost in many areas, how do we resolve those issues . Then we have a broken Business Model, the 14 year of the ten year analysis, we need to make a decision, they agree the model is broken, need legislation. The answer for the Postal Service we are going to get that done. In the private sector, there are new technologies and Artificial Intelligence technologies, a kind of data collectiona, in matters that hae been used in the private sector to make it more efficient, are there one or two or three technologies you think over the next five years or so the Postal Service could adopt or adopt how to make the Postal Service more efficient . We have a lot of information technology, we have information, when we look at, we have to align technology where our strength is which is Human Interaction each day, 160 million in the Retail Centers throughout the community. How do we enhance the connection with the American People who are eventual customers through technology . How do we enhance communicatio communications . So we stay connected, that is where our focus will be on technologys. Back to the issue of mail in ballots, president su trump is worried about maybe fraud and mail in ballots, i think you have said you disagree with the president on that, your view is you think mail in ballots will be delivered and theres not fraud so is that correct, mi correctly summarizing your position . The Postal Service will do its job to deliver, they will deliver ballots. The president goes into the Postal Service, it is not equipped to do it which is incorrect with that. We are going to deliver ballots. The rest of the discussion, i dont comment on. What has been the Biggest Surprise to you about washington d. C. . Youve lived your career in new york North Carolina and now youre in washington, has been a more difficult environment what is your Biggest Surprise on the upside and on the downside . Inandout of washington, not around the various things, i would say when i comment on it, i had to go to why i am here, the surprise really is, in a good way, how well ive been embraced by the team here, how well they engage the ideas that they have come up together with and move very fast. You would think within 45 days, the impacts weve had while being publicized is negative, we are prepared to move forward and achieve the objectives weve h had. That is a pleasant surprise when you think about coming into then bureaucracy, so to speak of washington d. C. On the downside, theres a lot of misinformation that gets promoted for different reasons, i dont care to get into it but it is garys information. Okay. By the Postal Service for governor, you are a member, are you . I am. Your term goes for a number of years so it President Trump is reelected, i presume you would want to say but if President Biden vice President Biden is elected, you have the right, i guess i want to say, would you be interested in staying as well . You dont want to . Ll i developed a really good bond with the team here, they are engaging the objectives and i want to see them through. We have a a plan to have a successful Postal Service. We need to Bring Congress along and a few other things, we have a plan and i would like to see wat through, no matter who is president. So what would you like people to most know about the Postal Service . Lets suppose someone is watching they cantst remember, only a paragraph or two about the Postal Service, what message would you like them to take away from this discussion about the Postal Service . I think the biggest number one thing to understand, which i think most of the public does, six 30,000 men and men who work there are unbelievably committed to fulfilling the mission to the American People. Its heartwarming and im proud in his seat and be the leader of this organization because the commitment is second to none and also, also on the other side, the American Public should know we do not get funding by the government, we dont get tax payer dollars, we are providing a service and the mandate comes fromm congress we provide that service in a way and charge in a way that covers our costs. Its about service and funding and so forth so those are two things. You have a committed organizationga is going to grow, we are committed to expanding connections with the American Public and we dont receive taxpayer dollars and we are proud of that. We need to operate a little better, getting a couple of drinks from the legislatures. You been under pressure, for sure. You got a lot of attention, you have time for relaxation . Can you just go play golf or do anything or you dontor have tie for that anymore . Weve had pressure in our careers and its a different type of pressure, i dont feel pressure i am invigorated by the work, i worked very hard to build my company. Five year retirement was fun but i am having fun now, i tried on moving organizations and trying to, when you think about the role here, it is similar to what i did as a Third Party Provider in the private sector, reorganizations to advance the Service Mission with the lowestcost we can do so i am feeling good and im going to continueue. Final question, you get the inspiration from Benjamin Franklin, does he ever was for ideas on how to make it more efficient . I think when he was running it, he delegated it to his wife to run, if i understand but do you have any inspiration from Benjamin Franklin . Not yet. I just think very proud and humbled to be in the seat he occupies. I read his book, i know you did an interview on his book, i watched it and it is just a public service, i am a patriot, i enjoy that aspect and when you look back, one of the founding fathers, it is Benjamin Franklin and i am awed by the fact that i am sitting. Thank you very much, thank you for explaining the issues i raised with you and i appreciate your time and effort and good luck to you. Thank you for having me, this wasit fun. As i mentioned, this will be on our website in a few moments and i hope youll enjoyed and learned about the Postal Service in the Electoral College situation. Thank you all very much. January, the competitive congressional races leading up to election day cspan campaign 2020 coverage, watch the candidates they and Election Results on cspan. Watch online at cspan. Org or listen on the free cspan radio out. Cspan, your unfiltered view of politics. Sunday 6 00 p. M. Eastern on afterwards