Upcoming Audit Work

Under its Delivering for America plan, the Postal Service committed to modernizing equipment to improve efficiency, increase mail security, and ensure carrier safety. The Mobile Delivery Device-Technology Refresh (MDD-TR) is a hand-held scanner used by carriers that went through modernization efforts - including the addition of an electronic lock function which requires dual authentication to access a mail receptacle - to achieve Postal Service’s above objectives. Our audit will assess the functional efficiency of the MDD-TR and the impact on physical security of collection boxes through electronic lock technology and public awareness efforts.

The U.S. Postal Service’s mission is to provide the nation with trusted, safe, and secure mail services. As the Postal Service provides mail service to almost 153 million customers six days a week as part of its universal service obligation, mail can be subject to theft to include internal theft. Internal mail theft includes the theft, destruction, or delay of mail and packages by postal employees. Our objective is to assess the U.S. Postal Service’s efforts to prevent and detect internal mail theft in mail processing facilities.

Most of the Postal Service’s current fleet of delivery vehicles are outdated, expensive to maintain, and lack certain modern safety and operational features such as airbags. As part of its Delivering for America 10-year plan, the Postal Service aims to modernize its aging fleet with both Next Generation Delivery Vehicles and Commercial-Off-the-Shelf vehicles, which include battery-electric and internal combustion engine vehicles. This audit will assess the status of the Postal Service’s acquisition of new delivery vehicles.

Under Delivering for America, the Postal Service is redesigning its legacy network to create a best-in-class mail and package processing network. Central to this redesign is the creation of approximately 60 Regional Processing and Distribution Centers (RPDC) to consolidate mail processing operations and create fewer points in their transportation networks. The Portland, OR RPDC opened in February 2024, centralizing outgoing mail and package processing in the greater Portland metropolitan area. The objective of this audit is to assess the operational impacts related to the launch of this RPDC and identify successes, opportunities, and lessons learned.

Postal facilities are used to process a variety of market dominant and competitive letter, Flat, and parcel mail products. Some of these facilities are used to process only parcel mail products. The Postal Service uses methodologies established by the Postal Regulatory Commission to determine its attributable and fixed costs, which are also referred to as institutional costs. Our objective is to assess the Postal Service's processes for tracking and attributing costs for parcel-only processing facilities. The scope of our audit is for fiscal years 2019 through 2024. The estimated report release date is September 2024.