Mail Delivery, Customer Service, and Property Conditions Review - East City Annex, Columbus, OH
Background
This interim report presents the results of our self-initiated audit of mail delivery, customer service, and property conditions at the East City Annex in Columbus, OH (Project Number 22-044). The East City Annex is in the Ohio 2 District of the Central Area. The carrier annex services ZIP Codes 43201, 43203, 43205, and 43210. There are about 64,494 people living in these ZIP Codes, which are considered urban communities. We judgmentally chose the East City Annex based on the number of stop-the-clock (STC) scans occurring at the delivery unit, rather than at the customer’s delivery address.
Objective, Scope, and Methodology
Our objective was to evaluate mail delivery, customer service, and property conditions at the East City Annex in Columbus, OH.
To accomplish our objective, we focused on these four audit areas: delayed mail, package scanning, truck arrival scans, and property conditions. Specifically, we reviewed delivery metrics including the number of routes and carriers, mail arrival time, amount of reported delayed mail, package scanning, and distribution up-time. During our site visit from January 11 through January 13, 2022, we reviewed mail conditions; package and truck arrival scanning procedures; and unit safety, security, and maintenance conditions. We also analyzed the scan status of mailpieces at the carrier cases and interviewed unit management and employees. We discussed our observations and conclusions as summarized in Table 1 with management on February 24, 2022, and included their comments where appropriate.
The East City Annex is one of three delivery units the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General (OIG) reviewed during the week of January 10, 2022, that are serviced by the Columbus Processing and Distribution Center (P&DC). We issued this interim report to provide the Postal Service with timely information regarding the conditions we identified at the East City Annex. We will issue a separate report that provides the Postal Service with the overall findings and recommendations for all three delivery units.