Upcoming Audit Work

The Postal Service operates approximately 31,000 retail units. Management at these retail units must provide adequate security for all accountable items such as USPS funds, accountable paper, and equipment and report their financial activity at the close of each business day. This audit will determine compliance with policies and procedures regarding financial controls and safeguarding of assets at selected Postal Service retail units.

The Postal Service manages over 31,000 retail facilities nationwide where customers can buy stamps, mail packages, apply for passports, or other receive other retail services. These facilities should be accessible to customers, such as being open the hours and days as posted, not being closed for extended periods of time, and reachable by customers requiring additional assistance. Our objective is to assess customer access at Postal Service retail facilities. We will be focusing on retail hours, openings, suspensions, and physical accessibility.

In October 2023, the Postal Service deployed a major change to operations when it began piloting its Local Transportation Optimization (LTO) initiative. The initiative was designed to reduce the number of transportation trips to and from select post offices and increase the amount of mail transported on each trip. As of November 18, 2024, the Postal Service implemented the LTO initiative in 16 regions, including the New Orleans region on August 12, 2024. Our audit objective is to determine the impacts associated with the Postal Service’s LTO initiative in the New Orleans region.

The Postal Service has been transporting live, day-old chicks since 1918. As the only shipper that accepts day-old chicks, the Postal Service provides an essential service for hatcheries, farmers, and backyard hobbyists. Last year, the Postal Service handled over 40-million-day-old chicks. The Postal Service requires mailers of live animals to comply with set guidelines to ensure safe, effective, and efficient transportation. In turn, the Postal Service prioritizes them through their processing and logistic networks. This audit will assess the effectiveness of the Postal Service’s procedures for acceptance, handling, and delivery of day-old chicks.

The U.S. Postal Service is redesigning its surface transportation network to reduce costs by moving more mail volume in fewer “middle mile” trips. To achieve this, the Postal Service implemented Regional Transfer Hubs (RTHs) where mail volume is consolidated before dispatch to the network and incoming volume is sorted for regional distribution. RTHs enable the Postal Service to increase trailer utilization, a measurement of how full trailers are, reducing the number of trips needed to move mail in the network.
Our objective is to evaluate the implementation and effectiveness of the Postal Service's Regional Transfer Hub initiative.