DeJoy, US Postal Service chief, to resign after 5 years of pandemic challenges, financial losses, and budget reductions.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Postal Service’s leader, Louis DeJoy, announced plans to resign, the agency confirmed on Tuesday. During his time in office, which spanned nearly five years, DeJoy faced challenges such as the COVID-19 pandemic, significant increases in mail-in voting, and initiatives to reduce costs and enhance services.

In a Monday letter, Postmaster General DeJoy asked the Postal Service Board of Governors to begin looking for his successor.

“I have dedicated extensive effort to guiding the 640,000 employees of the Postal Service in achieving remarkable progress,” DeJoy stated. “We have supported the American public throughout an unparalleled health crisis and during a period of elevated inflation and politicized discourse.”

DeJoy assumed leadership of the postal service in 2020 under President Donald Trump’s administration. Prior to his appointment, he was a Republican contributor with a background in the logistics industry, making him the first postmaster general in almost twenty years without a longstanding postal service career.

DeJoy developed a 10-year plan to modernize operations and stem losses. He previously said that postal customers should get used to “uncomfortable” rate hikes as the postal service seeks to stabilize its finances and become more self-sufficient.

The plan calls for making the mail delivery system more efficient and less costly by consolidating mail processing centers. Critics, including members of Congress from several states, have said the first consolidations slowed service and that further consolidations could particularly hurt rural mail delivery.

DeJoy has disputed that and told a U.S. House subcommittee during a contentious September hearing that the Postal Service had embarked on long-overdue investments in “ratty” facilities and making other changes to create “a Postal Service for the future” that delivered mail more quickly.

DeJoy also oversaw the postal service during two presidential elections that saw spikes in mail-in ballots.

Ahead of the 2020 presidential election, a federal judge limited one of the postal service’s cost-cutting practices after finding it contributed to delays in mail delivery. DeJoy had restricted overtime payments for postal workers and stopped the agency’s longtime practice of allowing late and extra truck deliveries in the summer of 2020. The moves reduced costs but meant some mail was left behind to be delivered the following day.

DeJoy said in his letter that he was committed to being “as helpful as possible in facilitating a transition.”