Geo-Fence Technology in Delivery Operations
Background
The U.S. Postal Service is developing and pilot testing the Delivery Management System to improve carrier efficiency during street delivery. This system combines Global Positioning System data and other data from various systems to allow supervisors to see “at a glance” the location of each carrier and whether they are ahead of or behind their scheduled delivery time. These scheduled delivery times are based on each routes’ base evaluation and the associated Managed Service Point scan times on each route.
This system will also include geo-fence technology to assist supervisors in monitoring delivery operations. Geo-fence technology is a system based on the concept of virtual geographic zones. Should a carrier deviate from his or her designated geographic zone during street delivery, an alert is sent to the supervisor in an email or text message. The geo-fence component of the pilot program was expected to begin in July 2014. There are seven planned test sites consisting of one delivery unit in each of the seven Postal Service areas of operation.
Our objective was to assess the Postal Service’s efforts to implement geo-fence technology in delivery operations.
What the OIG Found
The Postal Service’s planned use of geo-fence technology in the delivery environment is a proactive way to increase carrier visibility to aid street management.
However, we identified an inaccuracy in the Delivery Management System. Specifically, projected scan times are not adjusted for authorized route deviations when carriers are assigned deliveries on portions of additional routes. This occurs because the Postal Service has not updated the Delivery Management System for these authorized route deviations. Management planned to address this scan variance issue in April 2014; but, as of June 2014, had not finalized the adjustments.
Inaccurate scan variance data may cause supervisors to react to carrier delays that are actually justified based on their daily delivery assignment.
What the OIG Recommended
We recommended the vice president, Product Information, modify the Delivery Management System software to capture adjustments for time and location projections when carriers are assigned deliveries on more than one route prior to nationwide implementation of the Delivery Management System.