Industry groups are not expecting any dramatic changes to the U.S. Postal Service in the wake of Postmaster General Jack Potter’s announcement Tuesday that he plans to step down. Those groups generally expressed approval of the job Potter has done since 2001.
On Tuesday, Potter said he would retire on Dec. 3, after 32 years of service to the USPS, nine of them as PMG.
The USPS Board of Governors Tuesday named Patrick R. Donahoe, Deputy Postmaster General and COO, to succeed Potter.
“I think the postal service will stick with the plan it announced last March because the full board was in support of that,” said Tony Conway, executive director of the Alliance of Nonprofit Mailers.
That plan calls for cutting back mail delivery to five days a week and making other cost cutting moves http://directmag.com/postal/usps-five-day-plan-0330/index.html
“I can’t imagine the USPS is going to abandon all the work to date to turn the postal service around,” said Hamilton, Davison, president of the American Catalog Mailers Association.
One thing Potter was credited with was leading the postal service through the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001 and the anthrax-in-the-mail crisis about a month later http://directmag.com/news/marketing_minimal_disruptions_usps/index.html.
“There was a lot of fear not only in the country but in the workplace,” said Conway. “He did a remarkable job of holding everything together. That was probably his finest hour.”
“I’m sorry we’re losing Potter, who I think has been phenomenal,” said Davison. “He’s made a lot of hard choices. I wouldn’t say I agree with everything he done but you’ve got to give the guy big credit for what he’s accomplished.
“He came in with anthrax and he goes out with volume collapse,” said Davison. “He’s dealt with a lot of huge crises.”
According to the USPS, Potter’s accomplishments include:
*Eliminating more than $20 billion in costs during the last 10 years, with cumulative savings of more than $50 billion.
*Building a leaner, more flexible workforce and increasing efficiency and productivity through technology and the expansion of automation in mail processing and delivery.
*Cutting about 200,000 management positions since 2001.
*Creating a 10-year action plan that is a blueprint for necessary operational, legislative and regulatory changes to the current business model.
Going forward, both Conway and Davison said they expect similar, but not identical, behavior when Donahoe takes over the PMG role.
“I think he’s is a good choice,” said Davison. “We need continuity right now with as many challenges as we’re faced. But clearly he’s a different person. He’s going to put his own stamp on how things are done and what that stamp is is hard to say.
