Front and Center
Ode DeJoy
Postmaster General Louis DeJoy announced on Tuesday the 10-year plan for making necessary improvements to the USPS, including making delivery times… longer? Well, at least the post office hours will stay open… shorter?
Wut.
You heard that right. Beyond their adorable new vehicles which have already hit the streets, the 10-year plan, called Delivering for America, includes a much-needed $40 billion investments in modern package processing equipment and carrier devices, vital upgrades to post offices and uniforms, and implementation of new employee training which will help these overworked carriers from going postal. It will also dial down delivery time expectations for first-class mail from a 3-day standard… to a 5-day standard.
HOW COULD THEY?
I KNOW! Lawmakers are outraged and have already called to oust the PostMaster General for this plan. DeJoy notes in the plan that they have not been able to meet this 3-day standard for the past 8 years, but they expect to meet this 3-day approximately 70% of the time. They will be moving First-Class Mail from air transportation, which is costly, unreliable and carbon emission-heavy, to sustainable ground transportation.
Well, that’s good.
Maybe I <3 my mail carrier too much, but these changes sound necessary to improve the overall health and operations of the USPS in the long run. Not to mention, it shows a further shift towards sustainability in logistics operations, a common theme we’ve seen week after week.
Back of the Packet
Titanic 2
One of the largest container ships in the world has run aground in a sandstorm and blocked all traffic through the vital Suez Canal water passageway in Egypt, which CNN reports, accounts for approximately 30% of container ship traffic globally each day. Shipping delays and higher gas prices are predicted to affect consumers around the globe, as tug boats have been tugging their little hearts out around the clock to dislodge the titanic, 220,000-ton ship.
Running Train
Announced on Tuesday, the first rail network has connected the US, Mexico and Canada in a $29B deal between Canadian Pacific Railway and Kansas City Southern, in a move that seems to kick President Biden’s promise of the Second Great Railway Revolution. The Canadian Pacific Railway links east and west coasts between the US and Canada, while Kansas CIty Southern connects US, Mexico and Panama, with the major networks connecting on a single point at a joint facility in Kansas City, Missouri.
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