Tag: USPS

The Postal Service needs more flexibility in setting rates and a strong dose of modernization to survive in the 21st century, Controller General David Walker told lawmakers.

Walker told a House Committee on Government Reform panel looking into overhauling the Postal Service that stiff online competition has contributed to a three-year decline in money-generating deliveries, yet the post office has had to serve more than 5 million more addresses in that time.

The Postal Service, Microsoft and a technology company called Authentidate have developed a system called Electronic Postmark for verifying that a document’s content is the same as when a user saved it. The service, introduced in October, is in some ways more a notary public’s stamp than a postmark, intended particularly for those affixing their electronic signatures to documents relayed online.

Seven weeks into its Carrier Pickup pilot program, the U.S. Postal Service has received over 650 requests to pick up more than 17,500 packages in the six participating districts, the agency said. Carrier Pickup is a USPS service that lets customers go online to request next-day package pickups. There is no pickup fee because the packages are picked up from the customers as part of the carrier’s normal delivery route. Packages must be prepared with the appropriate postage and ready to go before they are picked up.

A new performance-review system for 70,000 U.S. Postal Service managers will result in improved mail operations, postmaster general John E. Potter told the Washington Post.

“If our people are happy, our customers will be happy because service will be up and costs will be down,” Potter said, according to the Post. “If we have unhappy folks, the system will be sending a message that they haven’t performed. To me, that is truly a breakthrough — that we’re able to get through the entitlement culture and get to people and say, ‘OK, listen, there is no more mystery here. This is what your job is. These are the indicators that you are being held accountable for.’ ” Managers were getting raises of 2.5 percent to 3 percent every year, regardless of their performance. Under the new system, raises are determined by how well they meet customer service goals, improve workplace safety and control overtime and other measurable costs. There are no guaranteed increases or cost-of-living adjustments.