Timeliness of First-Class Mail in Southeast Florida
Background
The U.S. Postal Service has service standards or timeliness goals for delivering mail after receiving it from a customer. The delivery service standard for First‑Class Mail varies between two to five days, depending on the distance it travels. For First‑Class Mail that is both collected and delivered within the same district (turnaround mail) the standard is two days. The Postal Service’s goal is to deliver at least 92.5 percent of First‑Class Mail within the service standard.
What We Did
Our objective was to assess the timeliness of First‑Class Mail collected and delivered within the Florida 3 District in Fiscal Years 2023 and 2024. For this audit, we conducted site observations at the two processing facilities in the district and 18 delivery units. We also conducted a mail test to evaluate First‑Class turnaround Mail service within the district.
What We Found
The Florida 3 District did not meet the on-time delivery goal for First‑Class turnaround Mail over the last two years as only between 83 and 90 percent of turnaround mail was delivered on-time each month. We found deficiencies at both the processing facilities and delivery units that impacted the district’s ability to meet service goals. Specifically, supervisors at processing facilities did not always verify mail was cleared after operations were complete or verify mail was correctly sorted for delivery and failed to meet processing goals resulting in higher volumes of manually processed mail. Additionally, at the delivery units, carriers did not always collect mail from collection boxes or verify all mail was delivered each day. Further, we found supervisors did not use Postal Service communication systems to effectively report and resolve service issues.
Recommendations and Management’s Comments
We made five recommendations to address the issues identified in the report. Postal Service management agreed with all recommendations. Management’s comments and our evaluation are at the end of each finding and recommendation. The U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General (OIG) considers management’s comments responsive to all recommendations, as corrective actions should resolve the issues identified in the report.