U.S. Postal Service Scores 95 Percent Sixth Quarter in a Row

The U.S. Postal Service scored 95 percent in overnight on-time delivery for the sixth consecutive quarter. The assessment, which is measured independently by IBM Consulting Services, was announced today during the agency’s Board of Governors meeting in Dallas.

This Quarter II measurement — Jan. 1 through Mar. 31 — also cites scores of 91 percent for two-day and 88 percent for three-day delivery, according to U.S. Postal Service Vice President and Consumer Advocate Francia Smith. Residential Customer Satisfaction scores are steady at 93 percent. However, an improvement in the number of customers who rate the service as “excellent” is noted in IBM’s report.

This report provides an independent assessment of the time it takes a piece of First-Class Mail, once it’s deposited into a collection box, to be delivered to one of more than 141 million American homes, businesses and Post Office boxes.

In other activity, the Board approved $10.8 million in funding for restoration and renovation of the Trenton, NJ, Processing and Distribution Center (P&DC). The facility, which has been closed for more than two years following the anthrax attacks of October 2001, was successfully fumigated late last year. The decontamination process was completed in February 2004, and initial work to remove or repair materials and equipment damaged by the fumigation process has begun.

Restoration and renovation of the Trenton P&DC will create an improved environment for employees and customers returning to the facility. It is scheduled to reopen in the spring of 2005. Similar restoration work took place at the Joseph Curseen Jr. and Thomas Morris Jr. Processing and Distribution Center (Brentwood) in Washington, D.C., which reopened to the public in December 2003.

The Board also approved three filings with the Postal Rate Commission (PRC). One is to conduct an experiment establishing a convenient flat rate for Priority Mail parcels of a standard size. The other two are to implement Negotiated Service Agreements (NSAs) with financial institutions to encourage their greater use of First-Class Mail. These NSAs are patterned after a similar agreement with Capital One now in effect. Details of the filings will be released when they are submitted to the PRC.

EXFC Overnight Service Results

JANUARY 1, 2004 – MARCH 31, 2003 (PQ ii, FY 2004)

EXFC externally measures collection box to mailbox delivery performance.

EXFC continuously tests a panel of 463 ZIP Code areas selected on the

basis of geographic and volume density from which 90% of First-Class

volume originates and 80% destinates. EXFC is not a system-wide

measurement of all First-Class Mail performance.