Five years ago a U.S. Postal Service rural carrier claimed she sustained a neck injury while lifting a letter tray. She went on disability and has not worked for the Postal Service since 2005.

Claiming she was unable to work, she collected $193,000 in disability payments. Our investigators would soon discover this 'injured' rural carrier was actually collecting additional income, traveling around the world, became certified as an open water and advanced scuba diver, and enjoying outdoor sports, all after her disability claim.

Photographs and video showed the carrier actively participating in hiking, snow skiing, bicycling, bungee jumping, dancing, horseback riding, and scuba diving, while she was in receipt of workers' compensation benefits for total disability. In addition, she purchased a $150,000 boat and named it "Free Ride".

Now her free ride is over, as well as her 13 year career with the Postal Service. She was sentenced to 18 months in prison and required to pay back the $193,000 she received through disability payments.

Soon, most of the U.S. Postal Service's 142,000 long-life vehicles (LLVs) will reach the end of their 24-year expected lifespan. Although the Postal Service has successfully maintained its LLV delivery fleet in safe, working condition for more than 20 years, the agency has delayed buying new LLVs until fiscal year (FY) 2018 because of budget constraints. Deployed between 1987 and 1994, the right-hand drive LLVs cost $515 million in repairs for FY 2008 and $524 million in FY 2009. Annual repair costs were as high as $43,000 per vehicle during this 2-year period.

The U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General (OIG) looked at the Postal Service's vehicle costs and determined the agency's preventive maintenance strategy was not cost effective for the aging LLVs. In a report to Postal Service management, OIG auditors recommended replacing the maintenance intensive vehicles beginning FY 2011. The Postal Service agreed and developed a replacement plan. To read this report in its entirety, click here. Also, you can share your thoughts here in our blog on the topic and learn more from an interview we did on Federal News Radio.

Worksharing is a form of outsourcing where mailers perform activities for the Postal Service, such as mail processing or transportation, in exchange for reduced prices. For more than 30 years, the Postal Service has offered workshare discounts to mailers, but the discounts have inspired strong and opposing views.

To some, worksharing liberated the Postal Service’s supply chain to the private sector, increasing efficiency, growing mail volume, and allowing the Postal Service to tailor pricing to its customers’ needs. To others, worksharing exposed the Postal Service to revenue risks, provided subsidies to big mailers, and sacrificed postal jobs to unfair competition.

The Office of Inspector General’s Risk Analysis Research Center undertook an independent assessment of worksharing. The assessment found that in many ways worksharing has been a resounding success in the United States and a model for posts in other countries to emulate. Yet, there are still problems to be addressed and opportunities to be explored. The results appear in a recently released white paper. Some of the key findings are

Worksharing has rapidly grown to dominate the Postal Service’s business and today represents over 80 percent of mail volume.
• The Postal Service provided $15 billion worth of discounts for work that saved $14.8 billion in avoided costs in fiscal year 2008.
• The Postal Service’s ability to retain earnings may create an incentive to set discounts to be less than the Postal Service’s avoided costs, especially in areas where discounts greatly exceed mailer cost.
• The Postal Service’s worksharing program is recognized as the largest, most sophisticated, and most transparent in the world

The time is right for the Postal Service, the Postal Regulatory Commission, and the stakeholder community to reexamine and reevaluate certain principles supporting worksharing in order to prepare it for the next 30 years.