USPS: Postal service performance scores at record levels

National on-time performance scores for the delivery of First-Class Mail were at all-time highs in the third quarter of fiscal year 2007 for all three of the categories the Postal Service tracks. Overnight service was 96 percent on-time, up from 95 percent the same period last year. Two-day service was 93 percent on-time and three-day service was 91 percent on-time.

First-Class Mail performance, presented today during the Postal Service Board of Governors meeting, is measured independently by IBM Global Business Services. The process measures First-Class Mail from the time it is deposited into a collection box or lobby mail chute until it is delivered to a home or business.

Five Postal Service districts led the nation with a 97 percent on-time score for overnight delivery. They are the Dakotas (comprised of North and South Dakota and northwest Minnesota), Greensboro, (the northern and eastern part of North Carolina), Big Sky (the state of Montana), Louisiana, and Northland (most of Minnesota and part of Wisconsin).

During the same period, national residential customer satisfaction was at 92 percent, as measured by the Gallup Organization. Eight Postal Service districts earned scores of 96 percent or better for customer satisfaction. They are Albany (comprised of the northern, eastern and central portions of New York state), Maine, Southeast Michigan, Massachusetts, Western New York (including Buffalo and Rochester), Greater Michigan, Dakotas, and Hawkeye (most of Iowa and the Quad-City communities of Illinois).