Postmaster General Marvin Runyon announced today he is leaving the U.S. Postal Service to return to the private sector.
Runyon has been the head of USPS since 1992. The Postal Service has seen a surplus of $4.7 billion over the last three years, allowing USPS to retire half its debt. In addition, performance levels for first-class mail hit 92 percent last year, and customers are giving USPS high marks.
Runyon pushed the Postal Service to accept new technologies and more businesslike practices, such as total quality management, to make the service more competitive. That's no small challenge: USPS is the nation's largest employer outside the military.
"The Postal Service is in great shape," Runyon said in an announcement. "It is poised for breakthrough performance."
But despite USPS' strong growth during Runyon's tenure, including an 8.2 percent increase in personnel, labor-management relations have been tenuous. The number of employee grievances nearly doubled from 1994 to 1996, costing the Postal Service more than $200 million a year to process. Labor unions criticize postal managers for penalizing workers more harshly than they punish supervisors for infractions. In addition, increasing competition from private shipping services and from electronic mail is pushing the Postal Service to seek more cost-cutting measures, including automation and contracting out.
Before taking over the Postal Service, Runyon spent four years at the helm of the Tennessee Valley Authority, where he initiated a major restructuring and downsizing effort. Prior to that, he was a high-ranking executive at Ford Motor Co. and Nissan America.
Runyon is expected to stay on at USPS until a new postmaster general is appointed.
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