Mail Delivery, Customer Service, and Property Conditions Review – Kent Main Post Office, Kent, WA
Background
This interim report presents the results of our self-initiated audit of mail delivery, customer service, and property conditions at the Kent Main Post Office (MPO) in Kent, WA (Project Number 22-096). The Kent MPO is in the Washington District of the WestPac Area and services ZIP Codes 98030, 98031, and 98032, which serves about 105,501 people and is considered to be an urban community. We judgmentally selected the Kent MPO based on the number of stop-the-clock3 (STC) scans occurring at the delivery unit, rather than at the customer’s point of delivery.
Objective, Scope, and Methodology
Our objective was to evaluate mail delivery, customer service, and property conditions at the Kent MPO in Kent, WA.
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 April 5-6, 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 in the “Notice Left” area and interviewed unit management and employees. We discussed our observations and conclusions as summarized in Table 1 with management on May 23, 2022, and included their comments where appropriate.
The Kent MPO is one of four delivery units6 the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General (OIG) reviewed during the week of April 4, 2022, and that is serviced by the Seattle 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 Kent MPO. We will issue a separate report providing the Postal Service with the overall findings and recommendations for all four delivery units. See Appendix A for additional information about our scope and methodology.