The U.S. Postal Service said it has created a chief logistics officer position and has tapped Kelly Abney, who has a long working relationship with Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, to run it.
Abney, 68, will oversee the Postal Service’s multibillion-dollar transportation network, with a focus on revamping the agency’s surface transportation network so it can reduce its reliance on air transport services, DeJoy said in an internal memo circulated Monday. Abney’s group will also oversee the deployment of a new logistics platform, DeJoy said.
Abney, whom DeJoy hired in the summer of 2020 to become the Postal Service’s vice president of transportation strategy, worked with DeJoy at New Breed Logistics, a company founded by DeJoy that was acquired by XPO Logistics Inc. (NYSE: XPO) in 2014 for $615 million. Abney then joined DeJoy at XPO, where according to a source close to XPO he spent about three years. Abney also served in high-level transportation and logistics roles at Walmart Inc. (NYSE: WMT).
Abney’s new position is part of an organizational realignment under which the Postal Service will separate its logistics and processing and distribution functions. Isaac Chronkhite, who had been in charge of both functions, was named chief processing and distribution officer under the revampment.
In the fall of 2020, the Postal Service established a stand-alone logistics organization responsible for improving its air and surface transportation network. DeJoy is making a major push to shift more parcels and mail to the Postal Service’s underutilized surface network and away from air transportation, which DeJoy has called costly and unreliable.
Under the realignment, Pete Routsolias, vice president of transportation strategy, and Robert Cintron, vice president of logistics, will report to Abney, DeJoy said.