September 16, 2020 (RISC-WP-20-008) Package delivery in rural and urban environments comes with challenges not experienced in suburban environments, such as numerous apartment buildings in urban areas or long distances between delivery points in rural areas. The Postal Service could make package delivery more efficient by installing more parcel lockers, encouraging larger curbside mailboxes, and…
Objective Our objective was to assess the effectiveness of management controls over recoveries for private party damage to U.S. Postal Service vehicles. The Postal Service maintains one of the nation’s largest fleets, with over 200,000 vehicles used for daily operations. In fiscal years (FY) 2018 and 2019, Postal Service vehicles were involved in over 58,000…
When you buy a car, how long do you tend to keep it? A few years? Six or seven? Ten? For the U.S. Postal Service, it’s a long, long time. The backbone of its delivery fleet – more than 200,000 vehicles – is the right-hand-drive Long Life Vehicle (LLV), which has an expected service life…
Objective Our objective was to assess the effectiveness of the Postal Service’s management controls for arrow keys. The Postal Service uses a universal key, known as an arrow key, to access collection boxes, outdoor parcel lockers, cluster box units, and apartment panels. Supervisors assign these keys – generally one per route – to letter carriers…
Objective Our objective was to assess the Postal Service’s acquisition strategy for delivery and collection vehicles. The Postal Service’s mission is to provide reliable and affordable universal mail delivery and postal retail services to the U.S. In fiscal year (FY) 2019, the Postal Service delivered to about 160 million delivery points, six days a week….
Objective Our objective was to evaluate recent delivery and scanning performance for selected U.S. Postal Service delivery units we audited in fiscal year (FY) 2019. We audited seven of these units based on carriers returning late to the office and 11 units based on the number of package scans performed at the unit instead of…
Objective Our objective was to determine if the U.S. Postal Service’s processing network is operating at optimal efficiency and meeting service standards. Our fieldwork was completed before the President of the United States issued the national emergency declaration concerning the novel Coronavirus disease outbreak (COVID-19) on March 13, 2020. The results of this audit do…
The U.S. Postal Service’s Customer Service and Delivery Operations units are the heartbeat of the entire operation. More than 400,000 employees process, sort, and deliver 140 billion letters and flats and 6.4 billion packages annually, relying on technology, such as handheld scanners, to assist. The changing mail mix (more packages and less lettermail) and the…
