Background As part of its Delivering for America plan, the U.S. Postal Service announced several initiatives to improve transportation efficiency and decrease air transportation. The Postal Service estimated annual savings from these initiatives of about $1.1 billion from surface transportation, and $701 million from air transportation. In October 2021, the Postal Service extended First-Class Mail … Read more
Background The U.S. Postal Service spent about $3 billion to transport mail via air in fiscal year (FY) 2021, an increase of about $53 million over FY 2020. These costs consisted of contracted services from [redacted], commercial airlines, [redacted], auxiliary transportation, supplemental ad hoc charters, and terminal handling services (THS) operations. The air network relies … Read more
Objective Our objective was to assess the Postal Service’s efforts to reduce Peak Season air transportation operational costs while maintaining service during fiscal year (FY) 2019 and FY 2020. The Postal Service’s Peak Season lasts about eight weeks, starting on or around Thanksgiving Day in November and ending on or around Martin Luther King, Jr. … Read more
Objective Postal Service transportation costs have increased $1.7 billion (or about 25 percent) since fiscal year (FY) 2014 despite an overall decline in mail volume of 8.8 billion pieces (or about 6 percent), as well as several initiatives to reduce transportation costs. Our objective was to analyze practices and cost trends and identify risk areas … Read more