USPS Office of Inspector General

We didn’t create our blog just to use the catchy name, Pushing the Envelope. We did it to inform and engage stakeholders about our work, particularly our audits and white papers, and the occasional topical issue. 

It’s been said the opioid epidemic does not discriminate. Its impact is felt in all communities — rural or urban, big or small, wealthy or poor. As was noted at a recent Senate hearing, nearly every American has been touched in some way by this crisis.

Policymakers are looking to attack the problem from all sides: greater access to treatment; increased funding for municipalities and their first responders; updated training for doctors in prescribing opioids; tougher penalties for drug dealers; and cooperation from pharmaceutical companies.

In the very near future, finding that missing package might be as easy as going to USPS.com and talking with a robot.

Well, maybe not a robot exactly, but a form of artificial intelligence (AI) known as a chatbot, a system that simulates conversations to field questions and complaints.

It takes a lot of vehicles to move 154 billion pieces of mail each year. And a lot of fuel to power those vehicles.

While the Postal Service’s Postal Vehicle Services (PVS) fleet is a small part of the entire fleet — about 4,300 vehicles made up of cargo vans, tractors, and smaller tractor-trailers known as spotter vehicles — it is a crucial part. PVS vehicles move mail between processing facilities, inner-city delivery offices, and local businesses and mailers. Their usual travel distance is about a 50-mile radius.

The U.S. Postal Service has one of the largest federal property portfolios in government. And with good reason. Its facilities support the delivery of mail to over 157 million delivery points.

One of USPS’s major responsibilities is to ensure these facilities are as safe as they can be, to protect the mail, the employees who work there, and the customers who visit every day. To meet these goals, the Postal Service relies on its managers and the Postal Inspection Service.