Highway contract routes (HCR) are the largest single group of contracts in the U.S. Postal Service, with about $3.5 billion spent in fiscal year (FY) 2018. HCR drivers move mail between post offices and other designated stops.
When it comes to mail, customers want visibility — that much is clear. The U.S. Postal Service’s answer is the Informed Visibility (IV) data analytics platform, which provides customers with full visibility for all mail and packages.
The Postal Service is leveraging this system to compete in today’s marketplace to gain customers’ confidence that mail is still a relevant form of communication. So, it’s an important investment.
It’s hard to argue with the rationale behind rightsizing the postal network. With mail volumes in decline, it made sense for the U.S. Postal Service to see if it could consolidate facilities and equipment.
That’s what USPS did from 2011 to 2015 as part of a two-phased network rationalization plan when it consolidated 223 facilities. As part of Phase II, the Postal Service also revised its First-Class Mail service standards, eliminating overnight delivery for single-piece FCM and shifting some FCM from the two-day service standard to three days.
The mailbox cannot live by ad mail alone. It needs other types of mail to boost ad mail’s effectiveness.
That’s the key finding from our recent white paper, Advertising Mail: Mail Mix Matters...
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Data use is critical for all aspects of the U.S. Postal Service’s operations, including determining costs and setting prices. That’s why data systems need to be accurate and reliable.
Our recent audit...
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In fiscal year 2018, the OIG hotline was contacted 96,252 times, almost double the number from the year before. Yet many of those complaints don’t actually fall within our jurisdiction and so we pass them along to the Postal Service.
We established the hotline two decades ago to receive...
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The Postal Service has service standards (timeliness goals) for delivering mail after receiving it from a customer. The service standard is determined by the class of mail and by where it's coming from and where it's going. The Postal Service measures its mail service performance against these...
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The Postal Service implements environmental and physical security controls at its facilities to reduce the risk of system and equipment failure, damage from environmental hazards, and unauthorized access to its IT and mail processing assets. Measures include fire alarms, suppression systems,...
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The Postal Service has seen a continuous increase in package volumes over the past few years. As more people shop online, package delivery service will continue to grow. Delivering a package on the first attempt is vital to the Postal Service’s ability to serve its customers efficiently.
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