Attention to me. Thank you for attending. You are the 75th postmaster general. The first one is behind you, i can see, Benjamin Franklin. He was the inventor of the Postal Service. You are a native of new york. In florida,ollege then he went back to your familys business and build it up we up. He built it into one of the larger Logistics Companies, ultimately merging it with another company. 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 you were going to get this much attention . The most normally famous position in washington, people can doubt if name your immediate predecessors. Did you expect you would get this much attention . Mr. Dejoy i think when i accepted the role you need to remember the situation the Postal Service was in at the time. It was right at the height of the beginning of the pandemic. And we were having significant financial consequences at the time. So, i was kind of urgently asked to join join. I thought most of the attention would be around the issues of running out of cash in september 20 billion in the projection, and having no help in sight. Thats where i thought the attention would be spent. Instead, we had a lot of media and political attention on the things that were very much removed from that. And, that was the unexpected sanchez sense of attention. Mr. Rubenstein any second thoughts about having taken the job . You had a very comfortable life in North Carolina. Was nominated to be an ambassador to canada. Any second thoughts about taking this job . Mr. Dejoy no, not at all. This is a fantastic organization with very committed people. And i think you have a very promising future if we get a few things aligned and move forward with them. And i think i have a certain type of expertise and availability, also, and willingness to engage in this type of activity. So i am happy, im excited, i had a warm welcome from the team at the Postal Service. We are working hard to move forward to get to the election and get on with our ambitions to be an exciting player in the marketplace. Mr. Rubenstein so, as i may have told you a special interest , i have a special interest the Postal Service because my father worked in the Postal Service his entire career. He retired when he was 55. I had a summer job once at the Postal Service. In between freshman a mail and sophomore years i was a mail carrier. Which was actually the best jobs i ever had. I enjoyed it. I have a special interest in the Postal Service. I never got invited back for the second year, and i dont know if they figured out i didnt do well, maybe you could take out the reports. High standards for carriers and it is a tough job. Mr. Rubenstein is not easy. For gave me a can of mace when dogs come after you. The first day on the job a dog was coming after me, so i got out the can and i sprayed it. Unfortunately, three houses later the owner of the dog said , did you spray my dog . I said yes, and she said, couldnt you see he is blind and has no teeth . I said, i didnt know, im sorry. That was the last time i used the maze. Maybe that is the reason i didnt get the job for the second summer. Mr. Dejoy we have about 50,000 dog bites a year. It is a big problem for our carriers. Mr. Rubenstein maybe i just picked the wrong dog, i dont know. Im going to ask you a number of questions, which you have been asked ad nausea him, im sure. Job, were youthe asked by anybody at the white house or the president to slow the mail down . Did anyone say slow it down . A. Dejoy no, no, no, and million times no. I have had very little conversation with the administration. The Postal Service is an independent administer administration. I report to a board of governors. That is where my plans for what we do with the service get approved. So, to date we have had no input from the white house on anything. Nor would they have any authority to direct me to do anything. While they may have some great ideas, i dont know, i have not heard any yet concerning us, that all of these would be vetted through our normal leadership process and a board of governors. That is how we run this organization. Mr. Rubenstein nobody said slow the mail down and nobody called you and said, you are doing a good job of slowing the mail down. Mr. Dejoy no calls about slowing the mail down from the white house. Mr. Rubenstein some of the actions you have taken, let me go through some of them and ask you why you did some of them. For example, it is said that you eliminated overtime for postal workers, i guess to save money. Was that right . Mr. Dejoy no, no. David, that is a little bit of misinformation. We ran 13 all of the time before i came here and we are running 13 over time now. You know, part of the reason we are running overtime is because of the pandemic. We have a lot of absenteeism in certain hotspots. That is how we supplement our labor requirements. In the long run, that is a problem for the Postal Service. After we get through the election and the pandemic, that is something im very much focused on. Going to be focused on. 5 billion all the time. It also brings instability in our workforce. That is one of the things im looking at doing. Bring stability to thetrying too the organization is good for everybody. Another thing is you had some mail sorting machines and you took them away from the Postal Service somehow. Them away from the Postal Service . Postmaster general dejoy again, no. Wereircumstances where we looking to lose 20 billion, run out of cash in september, and had no answer to that. Was on thect loan sidelines. We cannot get to a negotiated deal. That is what i focused on in the beginning. This is a process that has been around for a long time. They ran at about 35 utilization. There were experts in the field that understand our capacity to process mail and so forth. These machines are costly to keep up with that type of utilization. Those positions were made at the field level. Heard about them machines when i read it in the newspaper. Ok. What about the collection boxes . It is said you got rid of a lot of those collection boxes. Is that true, and why did you do that. Aboutster dejoy we have 140 thousand collection boxes throughout the nation. Our address base has grown largercantly, so the geographic areas they cover. Mail volume has dropped significantly over the last 10 years. So some of these collection boxes have very few pieces of mail. It has been an ongoing process over the last 10 years. We remove about 3000 collection boxes a year. There is a process within the organization spread throughout as to which ones get moved. And that was another one i read in the paper. Now, there are plenty of places. When we make these changes, we evaluate other access. You can go to another box, which would be closed by, you can go to one of our 32,000 post offices, basically in every american community, or you can give it to our mail carrier who shows up at your house six days a week. David one of the other charges that has been made is that you told workers if the mail is not ready to be delivered, leave and go out on your route without all the mail. In other words, you told people, do not wait over the mail to be given to them. Just get out on the route and start delivering whatever you have. Is that fair or true . Postmaster dejoy no. The big change. Lets talk about two big changes i made. One was we run our trucks on time. Trucks aout 150,000 day. They were running weight, based on judgment. This is the as meant this is the estimate this is the essence, the key attribute, running our network. Ourhey do not run a time, clients do not produce, our plants do not produce to a schedule, and it creates chaos and additional costs. Team to get those trucks to run on time with the mail in them. That was a good plan. We couldve had better education execution. We are recovering from that right now. The other big changes made was revising reorganizing the Postal Service, administrative personnel. When i leave here, that will be, to me and i believe we will see this manifest itself one of the most impactful changes i will have made, creating lines of control and authority and responsibility and clarity. Those were the two changes that i made. The rest are pieced together stories. Postmaster dejoy ok so there was a federal judge there was a federal judge in Washington State who issued an injunction that said do not do that for a while. Will you appeal that decision . Postmaster dejoy we are in negotiations right now. Noted to look at i did look at my email from last night to this morning because i knew i would be on this show and i did not want to get upset bernie ng, but many of the things i did not want to get upset or anything, but what the judge has decided happened a month ago when i put a stop to these things that were normal processes. We are in negotiations with them and hopefully we will come to a conclusion without having to appeal them. And the American Public needs to know we are prepared and committed to deliver election mail and that 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 appeal them or not. Postmaster dejoy the decision to appeal were not david the decision to appeal were not, is that the Justice Department, the white house . Postmaster dejoy not the white house. The Justice Department will be the entity, the organization, that leads us through this, in conjunction with our legal department, which is working very closely with them. David one of the other decisions was made by a new york judge last week as well. Certainyou have to make that all election mail is considered firstclass mail. So is that a problem for you or will you appeal that decision . Postmaster dejoy that is a typical process. He is making a decision on something that we already do. Is a definition of a class of mail and it has a certain treatment to that class of mail. You talk about the physical handling of ballots, and come in many cases, we treat ballots with a higher priority than firstclass mail. We will be maintaining the processes we have had in the past, which is when we see a ballot, we went to get it through the system and delivered quickly. Call with 50 secretaries of state in the country from each of the states, relating to a postcard you had sent out to people about mail. And you said in that is its report in the press that maybe you should have consulted them. What was all that about . I think, what i said is we heres what it is about. Okay, the Postal Service is probably it is the most stable part of the mail vote process over the past several years. Our process of been the same, delivery time is been the same in her message has been the same. Vote early, its like you dont send a mothers day card on mothers day. If you want to get it before mothers day. And i hope my mothers not watching, votes are a little more important. I hope you take more care than a mothers day card. The 50 states all with different requirements. Some states still have not made their decision just. So we set out at the beginning of the eared recognizing theres going to be more in votes this year, to educate the public and work with the states. We have had committees hear from our board, Union Leadership right down to our districts and the 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 about 10000 contacts throughout the country at different personnel. This the postcard we sent out was a general statement to the public to basically request about early fear going to vote by mail. And vote early. It was a high level message. And in some cases, it was not high enough and it conflict with a couple of the states. That is where we got someone to complain. I want to say though, we had a great deal of appreciation for many states in our efforts to educate the public on voting by mail. Did you say your mother is watching . Guest i dont know she was, i want her to know that mothers day card is important. And your mothers life . She is, she is. Host did shiver st. Louis why did you take this job . Did she ever say that to you . Guest shows his wise everyone picking on you. Stuart libby quebec the firstclass mail situation. So if somebody wants to mail their ballot in, the best thing to do is mail as soon as possible, is that right . Guest i would say yes come as much time as you can give up to handle it the better. And it just makes common sense. Get your ballot, make your decision and get it in early. So some people say that the Postal Service loses lots of money and maybe could be more efficient. I think one of the missions is to make it more efficient. Should the Postal Service make money, breakeven or does it matter if it makes money . It matters a kind of violates the law we dont cover up costs. We are legislated to be self sustained. It just kind of amazes me how that is never in the discussion. We lost 10 billion a year, without change we planned that will happen for the next ten years. With regard to efficiency, theres two ways i look at that. One is, we are required, universal Service Obligation to deliver to every house, every address in america, 161 million addresses, six days a week. That isnt inefficient thing. A private sector business would not be able to do that. We deliver mail on mules and the grand canyon and small airplanes up in alaska each day. That is our mission. And i am a defender of that and believe in that. I believe that is our strength. Those type of inefficiencies exist in the nature we build. Then theres operational inefficiencies. Which is what i am working on with the team. We have goals will get to write after the election. They are real small, they are real dollars some help us with sustainability. Some people say why dont we privatize the Postal Service . Take away from the government completely let the private sector figure out how to make Something Like that work. Jim the view and if that is a good or bad idea . I think it is a bad idea. First of all i dont think it would work sought something the American Public would want to see. Second of all, he would get them mules down the grand canyon for 55 cents we would require legislation for that and we know how that goes. Some people have said that the Postal Service is losing money for two reasons in addition one is because of email people are not settings but firstclass mail as they used to. Is that fair or unfair statement i think some of it as an accurate statement. An industry is evolves and competes with this this is where look at it, this is network because this 80 million a year to deliver our service. We charge 70,000,000,004. That is the difference of 10 billion there. How we get it that involves both legislation, freedom from the prc, ten year model, we are waiting for decisions on that. And us driving operational efficiencies getting tossed out a new Revenue Growth which we have plans for. It is a bunch of Different Things that drive together whether or not we lose money is still unders amazon is not using the service is not paying the full freight of what it costs. In other ecommerce companies. Is it fair to say youre not charging them enough . Is that a big problem . I think if you look at the Postal Service trying to cover its costs and that is a great cost goal in reinvesting into our infrastructure, we are short and price, or the tools in the toolbox to get there. With regard to amazon i think i think everything is respectable pricing with 10 billion shorts. It is not four times the price or anything like that. On the 10 billion, do you think it will get money from congress to make sure to get the election mail you negotiated by congress that additional amount of money. There are likely to get it anyway . So first of all, we need enough money to get to the election. Plenty of resources for the election. We will handle the election, the whole organization is committed to that. With regard to congress, everybody should know who doesnt notice, we really dont get any money from congress. Now theres lots of different bills floating around that promise to give us money, they are not even close to getting a pass we take pride in the whole selfsustaining objective here at the organization. Were not looking for handouts, we are in a selfimprovement mission right here right now. With the treasury with the losses. Still delivered everywhere. Its the range of seven to 10 billion that ive asked for. Other than that which i dont, i dont see. Huge if they just gave us money, if some fundamental change our business model, we have and we need to change it. She went so congress doesnt give you money but do you lend money from time to time . How do you meet your deficit unless you borrow from somebody . Guest we dont pay her bills and sums cases. We have, we do borrow, we do borrow from a treasury oriented Banking System we have about 15 billion. We did get to a deal when i came, the deal the treasury for 10 billion under the cares act was kind of dead. And i called treasury emily worked to work with the treasury secretary to get it back on the table. And we came to reasonable accommodation for us to follow one. Host lets talk about covid. Many companies have been working remotely during covid. I guess the Postal Service cannot really work remotely because youve got to deliver the mail. So how do you manage the Postal Service remotely like many other companies . Or have you just not doing anything remotely . Guest within our Administrative Offices we have many that are working remotely we basically have two stories here on the pandem