Thank you for giving us your time today. Thank you for the Economic Club for paying attention to me. If those dont know your background the 75th postmaster general the first one is behind you, Benjamin Franklin the inventor of the Postal Service. And who are native of new york went to college in florida and then went back to your familys business and bolted up North Carolina one of the larger logistics and you have been very involved in philanthropic activities at Duke University among other places and thank you for giving us your time today. So at the outset, when you agree to become postmaster general is not normally the most famous position i doubt many can name your media processors you are well known did you thank you get this much attention . If i may, when i accepted the role of the situation the Postal Service was in at that time and then to have significant financial consequences at the time. And the issues of running out of cash in september 2020 and having no help insight. But then to have a lot of media and political attention of things that were very much removed from that. And that was the unexpected. You had a very comfortable life in greensboro North Carolina and active in philanthropy and your wife was ambassador. Was nominated to be ambassador to canada. Any second thoughts about taking the job . Not at all. This is a fantastic organization with committed people. And we have a very promising future if we get a few things aligned moving forward. I am happy and i am excited. W it is a big problem for our carriers. Okay, maybe i just picked the wrong dog, i dont know. So okay im going to ask you a number of questions which you can ask at nausea him i am sure. But for our audience of a kind of go through them again. When you took the job, were you asked by anybody at the white house or the president to slow the mail down . Did anyone say slow down . No, a million times no. I have had very little conversation with the administration. And, that is where we were my plan that would guilty Postal Service. So i had no input from the white house. And then to have that authority to direct me to do anything that while they may have some great ideas. I know i havent heard any yet. But it would go through the normal leadership process and the board of governors and thats how we run the organization. Nobody said so the mail l downls or said doing a good job to slow it down . No. Some of the actions you have taken me ask what you did some of them. For example, it is said you eliminated over time i guess to save money m. Is that right . No. That is misinformation we and 13 percent overtime before he came and 13 percent now. Part of the reason running over time is because of the pandemic we had a lot of absenteeism and hotspots thats how a supplemental labor requirements but in the long run that is a problem once i get the election of a pandemic i will be focused on that 5 billion per year tried to bring stability to the organization its good for everybody. Another thing you had mail sorting machines and took them away somehowhoi why did you get rid of those . No no no. I did not do that either with those circumstances i if i mention this but those circumstances when i came to the organization we just received Congress Running out of cash in september there was no answer to that we couldnt get to a negotiated deal. That is what i focused on in the beginning. These machines ran at 35 or 40 percent utilization. Experts in the field understand our capacity to process mail. They are costly and costly to keep up those decisions are made at the field level i had a heard about the machines from the newspaper. What about the collection boxes and it is said you got rid of thosen. Is that true . Why did you do that. Its not true. We are 140,000 of the nation. Our address base has grown significantly. There are larger geographic areas. Mail volume has dropped significantly so some of them have very few pieces of mail. Its an ongoing process over the last ten years we would be thousand per year. There is a process within the organization which plans get moved to the left and i will read in the paperno bhe will alo evaluate other access another one that could be close by 32000 post offices basically in every American Community were delivered to the male character on carrier is a house sixties a week these are the decisions we make. You said if the mail is not need to leave and go out on your without all the weight just get out and start delivering whatever you have. No no no. The two big changes that i made was running the tracks on time and about 50000 trucks a day. They were running late im m and based on judgment. This is the key attribute if they run on time downstream process with mail carriers to run on time and the plants to produce to schedule and it creates chaos and additional cost. Worked with the teamea the to gt the tracks to run on time with the mail in the it was a big plan. We could have had a better execution and we are recovering from that right now will ever be changes been organizing the Postal Service 15000 throughout seven areas of the region and when i leave you see this manifest itself one of the most impactful changes i will make creating better lines of control. E. Ethe those are the two that i made. There is a federal judge in Washington State i guess issued an injunction saying all these things that are done, dont do them. So will you appeal that decision . We are in negotiations right now. I would get my email late last night and you i would be on the show. What the judge has decided we announced what we were doing a month and a half ago when i put the stop to some of these things that were normal process. We are in negotiations with them and hopefully we will come to a conclusion without having to appeal. We are prepared and committed to deliver election mail. These rulings are not necessary. But we abide by the law. Is a Postal Service or white house . Who was in charge of making thation . Decision . Not the white house. The Justice Department is the entity that leads us through this to make a decision moving forward in conjunction with our legal department. One of the other decisions was made by a new york judge and he said you have to make certain all election mail is considered firstclass e. Is that a problem for you . That is a typical process. Making a decision on something wen already do. Firstclass is a definition of the class of mail and adding a treatment to that class talk about the physical handling of balance and in many cases we treat those with a higher priority than firstclass mail. We will be advancing in the process that we have in the past as we see a ballot we want to get it through the system and delivered quickly. You had a call with the 50 secretaries of state regarding a postcard you sent out to people about mail and said that maybe you should have consulted them. What was that about . I think what i said, this is what it is about. The Postal Service is probably the most stable part of the mail and vote process so talk about delivery times in the leverage have been the sameee votete truly he will send a mothers day card on mothers day you want to get a mothers day. Servers are more important to take more care than a mothers day card. But the 50 states all with different requirements revolving some still have not made their decisions so we set out at the beginning of the year there will be more mail in votes to educate the public and work with the state electoral boards we have election committees and my Management Team and Union Leadership right down to o districts throughout the whole nation and the purpose is to educate the public on physical distribution process. When making 2000 and contacts throughout the country. The this card we sent out was a general statement to the work to basically request a ballot early and vote only a highlevel message. And in some cases it wasnt high enough and conflicted with a couple of the states thats we got some of the complaints but i want to say there was a great deal of appreciation for many states to educate the public on voting by mail. Did you say your mother was watching quick. I know but i was saying if she was a wonderful to know her mothers day card is important. Your mother is alive. She is. Did she say why did you take this job . She says why is everybody picking on you. [laughter] going back to firstclassis mail that they want to mail and their ballot is to mail it as soon as possible . Yes as much time as you can give us to handle it. That is common sense. Make a decision get your ballot and get it in early. Some people say the Postal Service loses lots of money and could be more efficient i think your mission is to make it more efficient should they make money or doesnt matter . It others it violates the law if we dont cover our cost. We are legislated to be self sustained. It amazes me how that never enters the discussion and we lose 10 billion per year and thats what will happen for the next ten years theres two ways a look at efficiency. We are required toun deliver every address in america 161 million addresses, six days a week. That is inefficient corporate sector business could not do that we deliver mail small airplanes in alaska and on murals in the grandnd canyon every day. But that is our mission i am a defender of that and believeel that. So those inefficiencies exist by nature of what we do that operational efficiencies which i am working on with the team and we have goals we will get to bed after the election. They are not small. They are real dollars helping us toward sustainability. Some people say taken away completely let the private sector figure it out how to make that work do you have a a few quick. Thats a bad idea. First of all i dont think it would work is not something the American Public would want to see. Second, who gets to me will run down the grand canyon for 55 cents . That wouldnt happen. Also who would require legislation . We know how that goes thats not on my agenda. Some people have said the Postal Service is losing money for two reasons but in addition but they are not sending as much firstclass mail as they used m to and relatively speaking its more profitable . Some of that is accurate we have an industry that is devolved competing with us with Digital Marketing and social media and so forth. Weather firstclass mail, this is the way i look at it. We have a network that cost is 80 billion per year to deliver our service and we charge 70 billion. And how we get at that involves legislation freedom from the ten year model and is striving those operational efficiencies and new revenueue growth. It is a bunch of Different Things that drive to gather where in fact if we make or lose money is still under discussion under my ten year. President of the United States is set a lot of Companies Like amazon are using the service is not fully the pain great of what it cost so is it fair to say you are not charging themot enough . If you look at the Postal Service trying to cover its cost and to reinvest into the infrastructure we are sure and price is a tool in the toolbox to get there with regard to amazonn, everything is in the realm of respectable facing and in the realm of being a good deal for everybody but its not four times the price. Where you get the money from congress to make certain they will deliver the election mail and breakeven or will you get that anyway . That is a mouthful. First of all Everyone Needs to understand we have enough money to get reelection and plenty of resources and we will handle the election the whole organization is committed to that but with, guard too congress we really dont get any money from congress. There are a lot of different poolss floating around that promise to give us money they are not even close to getting a pass. And we take pride in the whole selfsustaining objective at the organization. Not looking for handouts we are on a selfimprovement mission i have asked congress and treasury to cover our covid lise on losses and those cost should be covered between seven and 10 billion i have asked for o but other than that were on our own clueless there is major legislation which i dont see. If they just gave us money will be back in two years whatever that amount is less there are fundamental changes we ever broken Business Model and we need to change that. That congress doesnt give you many for today lend you money how do you meet your dm unless you borrow the money from somebody . Well pay her bills in some cases. We have deferred to some payments and we do borrow from the treasury oriented Banking System we have about 15 billion. When i came we got a deal with treasury for 10 billion under the c. A. R. E. S. Act wasac dead. I called judiciary the worked with the treasury secretary to get it back on the table and came to reasonable accommodations tomorrow money. Host Many Companies have been working remotely i guess the Postal Service cannot work remotely you have to deliver the mail so how do you manage the Postal Service remotely or just have you not been doing anything remotely . Within the Administrative Offices we have many working remotely from the administrative side. We have basically two stories on the pandemic one is the tragedy the probation has experienced we have those that contracted the disease 2000 out and we lost 91 coworkers and it has been a tragedy. The other side of the story is impressive. A lot of it was done before i got here. This is the great thing how it can focus in a nationalh c emergency reference in terms of getting ppe out for the workers for procedures. Great work with holy Union Leadership so we can move forward they are very involved looking at safety for the carriers in this all came together veryis quickly we deliver the 161 million homes and pay for the pandemic and getting there is like 99. Five so we have filled the mission filled the mission t the nation on that. That we live in those communities yet they still have to go out and restore normal behaviors when the mail starts showing up again. Its Something Special to see i went down to lake charles last week we had a hurricane and you could see how torn up the city was. I went to one of c the delivery units. David and have water in their homes but they were working hard to deliver mail to their communities. From a safety and administrative standpoint, we have air quality tests in into different kinds f equipment so we maintain the safety of our employees to make sure everybody agrees that we are safe to proceed and the duty heroic work that we do in these cases. When i was growing up i believe i have it right the mail was delivered twice a day and on saturday as well. Do you w think that it needs toe delivered on saturday as well some people suggest cutting it off to save money. Do you have a view onrd math cls i do. I think that six days a week delivery is legislated. I think that its a hard thing to get changed and its also the strength of the organization is something im taking a gamble on that we can use to connect. And remember we have 32,000 post offices. They get about a billion visits a year to these destination locations. The continued contact is one of the major reasons we are a trusted organization and potentially expanding some of our connection in the communities with the post office that is a Big Initiative of mine. Part was to establish a whole delivery headed by a retail in the delivery. She also has a digital background and we are very much excited about the things we are going to do in that area. How many total employees does the Postal Service have . Guest 640,000. Whatt percentage are men, women, white, africanamerican, do you know . We have about 500,000 unionized employees and00 as i said, we have about 100,000 event and about 40 minority in the organization and i would guess we reflect the statistics of the population. Its reallyla unbelievable the reflection of the American Public and they are a big impact to the american economy. If i wanted to send a letter overnight and i have three choices, ups, fedex and the Postal Service, why should i pick the Postal Service. Suppose im not familiar with any of them and i want to get a letter delivered overnight. Why should i take the Postal Service . We are cheaper, we deliver on ortime and we need to be sustainable so im asking for everyones business out of out there. You grew up in new york and ultimately went to college in florida but moved back to new york. Your father had a small trucking business of some type is that right . How did you take a small trucking business that had less than a dozen employees and build it into one of the larger Logistics Companies, what was your skill set to do that . Guest to take the i had seen many Different Companies and that gave me a background to look at how to integrate different operational aspects of many different industries. When you are in a logistics business, we handle everything from mickey mouse and bags and cell phones. That kind of experience helped me. One of the bi big pushes was i didnt w like trucking so i need to move onto somethinge else. That was when it was the introduction to technology. Information Processing Technology into business. I looked to broader to differentiate ourselves, turnkey type projects using technology and engineering. I was a good salesman and i convinced people at that particular point or two move forward with my organization one step at a time. And once we started to have our model oumodel out there is gain. We became selected in the type of business they did. Youe moved the company to North Carolina about 20 plus years ago. How come you still have a new york accent quirks guest i chose to use it for you today. [laughter] for people who dont know, what does a Logistics Company do, what is the service you are providing people . Guest theres many Different ThingsLogistics Companies do. We managed transportation and set up big centers. Our leading Service Strength was in technology and we were often one of the top providers of complex solutions for organizations in the worldni and these were Companies Like boeing, verizon, disney. We ran centers, planned inventory, took orders, processed them very much to specific schedules and shipped them to consumers with a lot of interaction between our main clients and their clients and thats really what we do. We probably moved about 60 billion of goods one piece at a time each year. You ultimately merged with another Logistics Company and stay there for a while then in recent years youve been involved in other matters is that right . s yes, sir. Back to the Postal Service, today what is the biggest single challenge that you face . The biggest single challenge is what in your view . So, they need to change how we approach the marketplace. We have a Great Mission oriented culture and now we are trying to update with more precision. We need to introduce more into the marketplace and we need to advance ourselves in all aspects of a normal business would be. I look at it more as the opportunities we have as opposed to theie challenges. How do we stop that and prefers that from happening . We have ideas going on around here now. Then we have a brokenav Business Model in the 14th year of a ten year analysis. We need them to make a decision. Theyve already agreed thate its broken and we need some legislation. A lot of technologies Data Collection matters have been used to make things more efficient. Are there one or two or three technologies that you think over the next five years or so the Postal Service could adopt that would ultimately make the Postal Service more efficient . We have a lot of Information Technology and some automation. But we have to a line at where e our strength is and if it is each day 161 million addresses in thand Retail Centers throught every community and how we enhanced the connection with the American People that are customers through technology, how do we enhanced our interactions with them thats where our focus is going to be on technology. Back to the issue of the mailin ballots. President trump said hes worried abouhe isworried about o forth related to the mailin ballots and i think you said you disagreed on that at least your view is using they will be delivered and there is not fraud. Am i correct the summarizing your position . s the Postal Service will do its job to deliver the ballots. When the president goes into sthat Postal Service isnt equipped to do it, hes incorrect with that. We are going tong deliver ballo. The rest of the discussion i dont comment on. What has been the biggest lrrprise to you about washington, d. C. . Youve lived in new york and South Carolina and now you are in washington. What is the Biggest Surprise on the upside or downside of thee child . Ive been in and out of washington. I wasnt around the various things. I would say going to why im here, the surprise is how well ive been embraced by the team and how well theyve engaged the ideas we come up with together and you think within 45 days some of the impacts weve had while being publicized as negative, organizationally we to move forward and that is rewarding and a pleasant surprise when you think about coming into the bureaucracy to speak to. On the downside, theres a lot of misinformation i dont care to get into but it is filled with misinformation. You are a member of the board of governors and so your term goes for a number of years as i understand. Ye if President Trump gets reelected i presume you would want to stay but if Vice President biden is elected, you have the right i guess under the contract tuesday. Would you be interested in staying or you dont really want to do that than . We need to Bring Congress along and then a few other things. But we have a plan and i would like to see that through, no matter who is president. Today what would you like people to most of the Postal Service. Lets suppose they will only remember a paragraph or two about the Postal Service. What is the message you would like them to take away from this discussion . The number one thing to understand which i think most of the public does, the 630,000 women and men at work here are committed to fulfilling the mission to thee American People. Its heartwarming and im proud to be in the seat because the commitment is second to none in missions ive seen. I also on the other side i think the American Public should know we do not get funded by the government, we do not get taxpayer dollars. We are providing a service and the mandate is to provide that service in a way and charge in a matter that covers our cost. Theres often misleading information about service and funding and so forth. So those are two things. You have a very committed organization that is going to grow. We are committed to expanding our connection with the American Public and they do not receive taxpayer dollars. We are proud of that and we just need to operate with a couple breaks from the regulators. Youve been under a lot of pressure for sure and got a lot of attention. Do you have any time for rest and relaxation, can you go out and just play golf or do you not have time for that anymore . Weve had pressure in our careers. Im invigorated by the work. I work very hard. The fiveyear retirement was fun, but im having fun now. I thrive on moving organizations and when you think about the role its very similar to what i did as a thirdparty provider in the private sector to innovative Large Organizations to advance their Service Mission for the lowest cost. So im feeling good and i will continue to charge forward. A final question do you have any inspiration from Benjamin Franklin whose picture is behind you, doesntr he ever have any is how to make the Postal Service and more efficient . I think when he was running, he delegated to his wife to run. Do you have any inspiration from Benjamin Franklin . s not get. I just think im very proud and humbled to be in the seats that he occupied. I read this book and i know you did a interview with walter isaacson. It is a public service. I enjoy that aspect of it and when you look back was one of the Founding Fathers and overcome it was Benjamin Franklin and i am in awe at the fact that im sitting here. Thank you premature postmaster general. I appreciate your time and effort. Good luck to you. U. K thank you for having me. As i mentioned to everybody, this will be on the website in a few moments and i hope that they wont enjoy it and learn a about the situation. Thank you all very much. Right now since the 1970s there has been this transformation. Here is a man born in 1942 repeatedly in the American South 50 and 60 years ago acted in the tradition o of essentially an early christian saint. Followed by a segment where they will take your questions. The first was to get the broadest possible Global Public in space and time. I write about the corporate world. And we will take calls starting at 8 40. We are asking middle and High School Students to produce a five to ten minute documentary exploring the issues they want the president and the congress to address. Giving American Business justice as shown in the amendment. When you are given the opportunities and skills to become voters, democracy must be learned. Through a tumultuous pathway to citizenship the immigration system failed many. The deadline is january 20, 2021. For the rules and more information go to the website. Mexicannext remarks by aty general william barr on his time in the trump administration, the rule of law and walked down during the pandemic. From hillsdale college, this is a little more than