USPS OIG Report: Mail Delivery & Customer Service Operations

Milam Dairy Annex,
Miami, FL

Background
The Milam Dairy Annex is in the South Florida District of the Southern Area. The delivery unit has 38 city routes delivered by 45 full-time city carriers and 34 city carrier assistants. The unit also has 18 clerks. Forty-two percent of the unit’s delivery points are businesses. We chose the Milam Dairy Annex based on the number of stop-the-clock scans occurring at the unit. Our objective was to review select mail delivery and customer service operations at the Milam Dairy Annex and provide the Postal Service with timely information regarding those operations.

Finding #1: Package Delivery Scanning and Handling
We determined that employees were improperly scanning packages at the unit and not following package scanning and handling policies. We used geolocation data to identify STC scans that occurred at the delivery unit property instead of the intended delivery address. Each delivery unit is required to have distribution clerks scan all arriving barcoded items as “Arrival at Unit” and delivery employees scan items at the time of attempted delivery using the appropriate STC scan.

Finding #2: City Carriers Returning After 6 p.m.
City Carriers at the Milam Dairy Annex were returning to the office after 6:00 p.m. Specifically, during September – November 2019, about 44 percent of the city carriers returned to the office by 6 p.m., 86 percent returned by 7:00 p.m., and 99 percent returned by 8:00 p.m. (see Table 3). The Postal Service’s goal is to have 100 percent of carriers returning to the office by 6:00 p.m.

Finding #3: Unsecured Vehicles
Employees did not always lock and secure vehicles at the Milam Dairy Annex. We inspected 53 unattended delivery vehicles on the morning of January 14, 2020 and found 11 vehicles (21 percent) that were not locked and secured as required. Postal Service policy states that all vehicle doors must be locked and secured when the vehicle is left unattended and out of the driver’s immediate sight. Management stated that carriers were supposed to be locking vehicles upon return from street duties.

Read full report


Hawthorne Post Office,
Hawthorne, CA

Background
The Hawthorne Post Office is in the Los Angeles District of the Pacific Area. The unit has 50 city routes, including one auxiliary route, delivered by 58 full-time regular city carriers, four part-time flexible city carriers, and five city carrier assistants. We chose the Hawthorne Post Office based on the number of stop-the-clock scans at the delivery unit. Our objective was to review select mail delivery and customer service operations at the Hawthorne Post Office.

Finding #1: Unreported Delayed Mail
During our site visit on January 22-23, 2020, we identified delayed mail that was not reported in the Customer Service Daily Reporting System (CSDRS) as required. Specifically, we found a stack of 545 pieces of Every Door Direct Mail dated January 15, 2020, which was delayed and not reported, and about 29 feet of flats, including one tub of mixed class mail that contained some First-Class Mail (FCM) at the carrier cases. The mail was delayed from the previous delivery day and did not have a color code placard indicating the scheduled delivery date. We also found three Postal Service (PS) Forms 1571, Undelivered Mail Report forms carriers use to report undelivered mail, along with the flats. Two forms were from the day prior to our visit but were not signed by a supervisor and one was signed by a supervisor but was dated 2018 (see Figures 1 & 2).

Finding #2: Package Delivery Scanning and Handling
We determined that employees were improperly scanning packages at the unit and not following package scanning and handling policies. We used geolocation data to identify STC scans that occurred at the delivery unit property instead of the intended delivery address. Our data analysis of scans performed between October and December 2019 showed that employees performed STC scans for 21,869 packages at the unit rather than at the delivery point (see Table 1).

Finding #3: City Carriers Returning After 6 p.m.
City carriers at the Hawthorne Post Office did not meet the Postal Service’s goal of 100 percent of carriers returning to the office by 6:00 p.m. Specifically, from October – December 2019, about 38 percent of carriers returned to the unit by 6 p.m. and 69 percent of carriers returned to the unit by 7 p.m. (see Table 2).

Finding #4: Safeguarding of Assets
Hawthorne Post Office management did not properly manage and safeguard Postal Service assets including arrow lock keys, Voyager Fleet cards, and mail delivery vehicles.

Read full report

Source: USPS Office of Inspector General

Leave a Reply

Required fields are marked *