Published by USPS on January 2, 2015
The postal facility consolidation proposals developed in accordance with the USPS Handbook PO-408 Area Mail Processing (AMP) guidelines that are part of the Network Rationalization Plan were submitted for public comment and acted upon by postal management in early 2012. Consistent with Pub.L. 109-435, Title III, § 302(c)(3)(D)(ii), each AMP proposal contained a summary of available information regarding the service standard changes expected to be implemented and a summary of other known service effects expected to result from the Network Rationalization initiative, including the specific service standard changes that were being contemplated for various postal products.
Ordinarily, when a specific AMP facility consolidation proposal is being contemplated, existing service standards and the configuration of the remainder of the network are held constant. In those circumstances, each specific proposal submitted for public comment and reviewed by senior postal management can include an estimate of the percentage of First-Class Mail and Package Services volume in the affected service area that is expected to experience no service change, a service upgrade or a service downgrade. Although the service standard change proposals under review in early 2012 were known, they had not been finally determined. The simultaneous pendency of approximately 250 AMP facility consolidations meant that the network could not be held constant for purposes of estimating for each specific AMP consolidation the percentage of mail volume expected to experience a specific service standard change. Accordingly, such information — neither specifically required by section 302(c)(3)(D)(ii) nor necessary to a determination of the feasibility of a specific AMP consolidation — was not included in the Network Rationalization consolidation proposals submitted for public comment and acted upon in early 2012. Nevertheless, each AMP facility consolidation decision package approved under these conditions in early 2012 contained an advisory notice that after the service standard changes were finalized and the future network configuration was resolved, estimates of the percentage of mail volume expected to experience specific service standard changes could be calculated and would be posted. This document contains those estimates.
The relevant service standard business rule changes were implemented in two phases. The first phase was initiated on July 1, 2012. The second phase of the business rule changes occurs on January 5, 2015.
Consistent with USPS Handbook PO-408, the following analysis utilizes volume data from the Origin Destination Information System (ODIS) for the time period when the facility consolidation studies were completed. The starting point is the service standards from January 1, 2012 compared to those in effect October 1, 2015. This reflects the impact of the national service standard changes effective July 1, 2012 and January 5, 2015, as well as the impacts of the consolidations. This analysis assumes implementation of all of the listed consolidations.
The percentages shown for each facility consolidation represent the estimated volume of mail for which the service standard either is unchanged or upgraded.
Facilities: Customer Service Mail Processing Center (CSMPC), Processing & Distribution Center (P&DC) and Processing & Distribution Facility (P&DF).
Consolidations: Originating & Destinating (O/D), Originating only (O), Destinating only (D).
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