The Postal Service generated $4.9 billion in new sales opportunities and cut operational costs by $868 million last year through DRIVE, an ambitious program that’s helping the organization make major changes.
Through DRIVE, USPS also revitalized its Priority Mail package service and reduced its facilities footprint by more than 3 million feet.
This year, the Postal Service is engaging in 19 DRIVE initiatives, including expanding Sunday package delivery to more than 6,300 ZIP Codes and implementing three USPS-run national Customer Care Centers.
“Each DRIVE initiative is a big, complex undertaking,” said Strategic Planning Director Emil Dzuray. “To be successful, we put in place a rigorous program management process to enable us to better work as one team.”
The Postal Service adopted DRIVE — Delivering Results, Innovation, Value and Efficiency — in 2011 to execute the major strategies in the organization’s Five-Year Business Plan. DRIVE originated in the private sector, where Fortune 500 companies use the process to manage major changes.
At the Postal Service, each DRIVE initiative is guided by a senior executive and a cross-functional team of managers. Initiatives are reviewed biweekly by the Executive Leadership Team and other officers to asses progress, review new opportunities and risks, and ensure teams have what they need to be successful.