Focus On

The Postal Service has more than 624,000 employees, and nearly 15 percent are pre-career employees. Most new employees who move the mail are hired as pre-career employees. They have lower pay rates generally than career employees and do not receive full federal benefits, although many USPS pre-career jobs serve as an entry point to career positions. Still, the Postal Service has faced difficulties hiring and retaining pre-career employees in recent years. We have issued several reports examining aspects of this problem.

The Postal Service has faced challenges with hiring over the last couple of years due to the volatile labor market, with some areas of the country being more challenging than others. It faces particular challenges related to hiring pre-career employees and first-line supervisors. We have a body of work covering these issues.

Highway transportation, whether provided by contractors or the Postal Service’s own drivers, is the primary way the Postal Service moves mail between processing facilities and from processing facilities to delivery units. The Postal Service spends more than $6 billion annually on highway contract transportation alone. The OIG frequently conducts work examining the Postal Service’s use of highway transportation.

Postal Service employees who are injured on the job or have a work-related illness can receive medical care and compensation for lost wages under the Federal Employees’ Compensation Act through a program run by the Department of Labor. The Postal Service spends more than $1.5 billion each year to reimburse workers’ compensation claims and administrative costs under this program. We conduct work related to workers’ compensation in several areas.

The Postal Service is in the middle of a major effort to replace its aging delivery fleet. Many carriers still use Long Life Vehicles (LLVs), which are far past their 24-year expected service life. To replace them, the Postal Service has decided to acquire more than 106,000 new vehicles from fiscal year (FY) 2023 through FY 2028. The acquisition includes both commercial off-the-shelf and purpose-built vehicles. Our oversight of fleet modernization focuses on several areas.

Ever since its creation, the Postal Service has added value to the country in numerous ways. The last few years have demonstrated the value of USPS providing mail and packages, especially in rural areas. USPS’s value to the country, actually extends well beyond providing mail. Our work in this area has identified some of the key benefits.

The OIG plays a critical role in detecting and preventing mail theft. This includes both investigations into postal employees who steal mail and oversight of the Postal Service’s efforts to mitigate mail theft. Below are some highlights from this work. improve the accountability of arrow keys.

The OIG has issued a series of reports on the Postal Service’s universal service obligation (USO) that provides information about the USO and lessons learned from other countries. Below are some highlights from this work.

Since 2009, the OIG has a done substantial amount of work in the area of employee pension and retiree health liabilities. This Focus On provides an overview of that work.

In response to the ongoing concern about postal services in rural areas, the OIG has published a series of reports on this topic. We found rural postal customers value and have a greater interest in using the mail compared to urban customers. The relative size of rural areas is important. Rural areas are geographically dispersed across the country and comprise 88 percent of the area served by the…

Read this paper to learn more about rural customers need and want from USPS In response to the ongoing concern about postal services in rural areas, the OIG has published a series of reports on this topic.