Mail Delivery, Customer Service, and Property Conditions Review – Parkland Branch, Tacoma, WA
Background
This interim report presents the results of our self-initiated audit of mail delivery, customer service, and property conditions at the Parkland Branch in Tacoma, WA (Project Number 22-095). The Parkland Branch is in the Washington District of the WestPac Area and services ZIP Codes 98444 through 98447, which serves about 75,397 people and is considered an urban community. We judgmentally selected the Parkland Branch based on the number of customer inquiries per route the unit received. From December 1, 2021, through February 28, 2022, the unit received 24.32 inquiries per route, which was more than the average of 11.05 inquiries per route for all sites serviced by the Seattle Processing and Distribution Center (P&DC).
Objective, Scope, and Methodology
Our objective was to evaluate mail delivery, customer service, and property conditions at the Parkland Branch in Tacoma, 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 Parkland Branch is one of four delivery units that 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 P&DC. We issued this interim report to provide the Postal Service with timely information regarding the conditions we identified at the Parkland Branch and will issue a separate report with the overall findings and recommendations for all four delivery units. See Appendix A for additional information about our audit scope and methodology.