USPS takes issue with OIG report on mail processing and transportation operational changes

The US Postal Service (USPS) has “taken issue” with a recent report on mail processing and transportation operational changes from the Office of Inspector General (OIG). In a statement posted on its website yesterday (20 September), the USPS raised objections to “the audit report’s content, analysis and tone”,  and “specifically the inaccurate findings that do not correctly reflect the benefits of Network Rationalization”.

The OIG report, which was published on 2 September, was produced in response to concerns from stakeholders that there had been an increase in delayed mail since USPS revised its service standards on 1 January 2015 – a switch known as the operational window change (OWC).

The OIG report found that there had been delays, but it stll concluded that USPS “should not revert back to its prior operating window”.

In its recommendations, OIG suggested that USPS should “re-evaluate the operational and transportation financial impacts associated with the OWC”.

Other recommendations were that USPS should:

• develop and implement a nationwide strategy to improve mail processing productivity before implementing any additional nationwide operational changes or consolidations;
• increase air capacity to meet its critical entry times;
• create a nationwide system to track and report the amount, cause, and origin of mail arriving after its critical entry time;
• and establish a nationwide database to capture and share the Lean Six Sigma team’s lessons learned.

In its response, USPS said that it “agreed with the report’s conclusion that since mail service scores have significantly improved since the operating window change was made in 2015, the Postal Service should not revert back to the prior operating window and implicitly, service standards.”

However, USPS added: “The OIG report’s use of outdated service performance results, combined with a non-statistically valid mailing test may lead to inaccurate conclusions about performance. In fact, since Network Rationalization was implemented, the Postal Service has not only improved mail service across the country, it has achieved record levels of service across the majority of service categories.”