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…
September 14, 2020 (RISC-WP-20-007) At a time when the Internet has become vital for telework, distance learning, and telehealth, more than 18 million Americans lack access to broadband service. Several potential partnership opportunities would allow the Postal Service to help bring high-quality broadband to unserved and underserved areas in the U.S. The Internet has dramatically…
September 10, 2020 (RISC-WP-20-006) As a vital part of the nation’s emergency response structure, the Postal Service ensures that mail operations — a lifeline for impacted communities needing access to medications and essential items — are restored after an emergency or natural disaster. The Postal Service, and the Post Office Department before it, have supported…
May 6, 2020 (RISC-WP-20-004) The need for a comprehensive review of the postal USO in this country has been discussed for over a decade. Defining a USO that provides clear guidance for a future Postal Service will be a challenging task, as it will need to balance customer needs while still ensuring financial stability of…
March 25, 2020 (RISC-WP-20-003) To maintain their rural networks of post offices, some foreign posts have reduced hours, outsourced post office operations, or generated various forms of non-postal revenue. The Postal Service is legally entitled to request a $460 million annual subsidy from Congress for retail operations but has chosen not to do so since…
The same-day delivery of merchandise and groceries in the U.S. accounted for only 249 million packages in 2018, making it a niche market with uncertain financial and growth prospects. The next-day delivery of parcels may well become a more critical segment than same-day — which bodes well for the Postal Service’s leading role in this…
Executive Summary Due to the impact of first‑line supervisors on Postal Service operations, the OIG sought to gain an understanding of the structure, footprint within the organization, and investments made in first‑line supervisors. As such, key human capital and performance data related to first‑line supervisors was examined to assess patterns of historical performance, evaluate comparability…
December 2, 2019 (RISC-WP-20-001) The Postal Service is a labor-intensive organization, with labor accounting for 76 percent of costs. As letter volume declines, managing labor costs will become critical to the Postal Service’s financial health. The Postal Service continues to face financial challenges due to declines in letter mail volume. As declines persist, strategic cost…
