diff --git a/.cargo/config.toml b/.cargo/config.toml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..bff29e6e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.cargo/config.toml
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+[build]
+rustflags = ["--cfg", "tokio_unstable"]
diff --git a/debian/rules b/debian/rules
index e3d84d2c..40418b9a 100755
--- a/debian/rules
+++ b/debian/rules
@@ -3,6 +3,11 @@
 export DH_VERBOSE = 1
 export JEMALLOC_SYS_WITH_MALLOC_CONF = dirty_decay_ms:30000,muzzy_decay_ms:30000,background_thread:true,metadata_thp:auto
 
+# Required by tokio::runtime::Builder::enable_eager_driver_handoff (unstable API).
+# The .cargo/config.toml in the source tree is overwritten below in override_dh_auto_build
+# to point at vendored sources, so we re-deliver the cfg via RUSTFLAGS here.
+export RUSTFLAGS = --cfg tokio_unstable
+
 # Rust installation directory (local install, no network access on Launchpad)
 RUST_INSTALL_DIR = $(CURDIR)/rust-local
 export PATH := $(RUST_INSTALL_DIR)/bin:$(PATH)
diff --git a/pkg/rpm/pg-doorman.spec b/pkg/rpm/pg-doorman.spec
index 0defd36a..7199a2d8 100644
--- a/pkg/rpm/pg-doorman.spec
+++ b/pkg/rpm/pg-doorman.spec
@@ -62,6 +62,11 @@ EOF
 # Set jemalloc configuration
 export JEMALLOC_SYS_WITH_MALLOC_CONF="dirty_decay_ms:30000,muzzy_decay_ms:30000,background_thread:true,metadata_thp:auto"
 
+# Required by tokio::runtime::Builder::enable_eager_driver_handoff (unstable API).
+# The .cargo/config.toml shipped in the source tree is overwritten above to point
+# at vendored sources, so we re-deliver the cfg via RUSTFLAGS here.
+export RUSTFLAGS="--cfg tokio_unstable"
+
 # Build release binaries
 cargo build --release
 
diff --git a/src/app/server.rs b/src/app/server.rs
index 039de921..4e54f27a 100644
--- a/src/app/server.rs
+++ b/src/app/server.rs
@@ -92,6 +92,7 @@ pub fn run_server(args: Args, config: Config) -> Result<(), Box<dyn std::error::
     runtime_builder
         .worker_threads(config.general.worker_threads)
         .enable_all()
+        .enable_eager_driver_handoff()
         .thread_name("worker-pg-doorman");
 
     // Apply optional tokio runtime parameters only if explicitly configured.