Mail Delivery, Customer Service, and Property Conditions Review – Vancouver, WA, Main Post Office
Background
This interim report presents the results of our self-initiated audit of mail delivery, customer service, and property conditions at the Vancouver Main Post Office (MPO) in Vancouver, WA (Project Number 22-032). The Vancouver MPO is in the Washington District of the WestPac Area. The post office services ZIP Codes 98660, 98661, 98663, 98665, 98685, and 98686. There are about 135,114 people living in these ZIP Code areas, with about 133,721 (99 percent) living in urban communities and about 1,393 (1 percent) living in rural communities. We judgmentally selected the Vancouver MPO based on the number of customer inquiries per route the unit received. From June 1 through August 31, 2021, the unit received 12 inquiries per route, which was more than the average of 10.62 inquiries per route for all sites serviced by the Portland Processing and Distribution Center (P&DC).
Objective, Scope, and Methodology
Our objective was to evaluate mail delivery, customer service, and property conditions at the Vancouver MPO in Vancouver, 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 November 30 through December 2, 2021, we reviewed mail conditions; package and truck arrival scanning procedures; and unit safety, security, and maintenance conditions. We also analyzed the scan status of mail pieces at the carrier cases and in the “Notice Left” area4 and interviewed unit management and employees. We discussed our observations and conclusions as summarized in Table 1 with management on January 18, 2022, and included their comments where appropriate.
The Vancouver MPO is one of four delivery units5 the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General (OIG) reviewed during the week of November 29, 2021, that are serviced by the Portland, OR, P&DC. We issued this interim report to provide the Postal Service with timely information regarding the conditions we identified at the Vancouver MPO. We will issue a separate report that provides the Postal Service with the overall findings and recommendations for all four delivery units.