US Postal Service’s 2004 performance at all time high

Praising employees’ performance at every level of the organization, Postmaster General John E. Potter today hailed 2004 as the Postal Service’s best year ever for customer satisfaction and on-time delivery of First-Class Mail.

Speaking to the Board of Governors of the Postal Service, Potter said that 94 percent of customers — an all-time high — rated their postal service good to excellent during the last quarter of 2004. During that time, the Postal Service also delivered 95 percent of local First-Class Mail overnight, while two- and three-day scores were the highest ever.

“Service performance remains my top priority,” said Potter.

The Pittsburgh and New Hampshire/Vermont districts scored highest in the nation with 98 percent Customer Satisfaction Measurement (CSM) results, as recorded by the Gallup Organization.

The Dakotas district led the nation with an overnight delivery score of 98. Eight other districts scored 97, according to the External First Class Measurement System (EXFC) which is administered independently by IBM Consulting Services.

This year marks the 15th anniversary of the Postal Service’s using the EXFC system to measure its service performance. “EXFC has helped transform the way the Postal Service conducts business,” Potter said.

In other action today, the Board approved funding for replacement of an aging fleet of more than 300,000 Mobile Data Collection Devices. The new generation of hand-held scanners is known as Intelligent Mail Devices (IMD) and will be used in most Postal Service facilities nationwide. In 2003, more than 800 million pieces of mail were scanned.

The new IMD will be able to read advanced barcodes such as the 4-State and 2-D barcodes. In July, the Postal Service competitively awarded a contract to Motorola to design, manufacture and support a family of hand-held scanner devices. Today’s funding authorization will be carried out under that contract but also includes funding for infrastructure and applications development.

EXFC Overnight Service Results JULY 1, 2004 – SEPTEMBER 30, 2004 (PQ IV, 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.