OIG finds problems with USPS Amazon Sunday Delivery at 40 of 134 hubs | PostalReporter.com
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OIG finds problems with USPS Amazon Sunday Delivery at 40 of 134 hubs

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oigamaUSPS OIG Report: Sunday Parcel Delivery Service

Operational inefficiencies existed during Sunday parcel deliveries in scanning, sorting, vehicle loading, and using the DRT software in street delivery at 40 of 134 hubs we visited in four districts.

In October 2013, the U.S. Postal Service entered into a Negotiated Service Agreement (NSA) with Amazon Fulfillment Inc. (Amazon) to deliver parcels on Sunday. This agreement is a specific contract the Postal Service executes with a single customer to increase revenue, improve operations or yield other benefits to the Postal Service. Carriers are to deliver Amazon Sunday parcels to customers in a logical and efficient order over multiple ZIP Codes using the Dynamic Routing Tool (DRT).The Postal Service’s DRT software creates a street route based on estimated miles traveled and the number of parcels for each route.

At the end of April 2014, the Sunday service was operating at 459 Postal Service hubs in 22 districts in the Pacific, Eastern, Southern, Great Lakes, and Northeast areas. Over 2.7 million parcels were delivered to customers on Sunday from these locations from January 1 through April 6, 2014. The Postal Service is in the process of adding Sunday delivery service at 786 additional hubs in 24 more districts across the country.
Our objective was to assess the Postal Service’s Sunday delivery service from an operational standpoint.

What The OIG Found
Operational inefficiencies existed during Sunday parcel deliveries in scanning, sorting, vehicle loading, and using the DRT software in street delivery at 40 of 134 hubs we visited in four districts. These inefficiencies occurred primarily because management did not always enforce policies and procedures and supervision was inconsistent at some hubs.

As a result, the Postal Service spent 17,446 more hours from June 15 through July 13, 2014, than DRT software required to conduct Sunday delivery operations. By improving efficiency, the Postal Service could reduce operating costs annually by $356,736 for 134 hubs in the districts we visited.

What The OIG Recommended
We recommended the vice presidents, Eastern, Northeast, Pacific, and Southern areas, direct managers in the Ohio Valley, Northern New Jersey, San Diego, and Dallas districts to eliminate inefficient operational practices, reduce workhours cited, and ensure adherence to Postal Service policies and procedures for Sunday parcel delivery service.
Staffing
USPS OIG observed instances of operational inefficiencies at 21 of the 40 hubs they visited (53 percent) that included overstaffing, charging time to incorrect codes, and employees performing cross-craft functions. For example:

■■ At the Jersey City Post Office hub on Sunday, March 30, 2014, USPS OIG observed a DRT requirement of 10 carriers based on parcel volume of 1,680; however, 23 carriers were actually used that day. We also observed the supervisor electing not to use the DRT process or DRT-created routes for the hub and relying on an unauthorized alternate route structure, which required the additional staff.

■■ At the Taft Post Office hub on Sunday, March 23, 2014, we observed carriers not charging time to the designated Sunday delivery labor distribution code (LDC) 23 and operational codes 724 and 723. USPS OIG also observed Postal Support Employee (PSE) clerks not charging time to LDC 43 and operational code 077. The Postal Service established dedicated LDCs and operational codes to track carrier and clerk workhours associated with Sunday delivery.

■■ At the Frisco, Englewood, and University City Station hubs, USPS OIG observed supervisors and city carrier assistants (CCA) performing clerk scanning and sorting responsibilities during large parcel drop shipments (see Figures 4 through 7).

crosscraft OIG report pdf

8 thoughts on “OIG finds problems with USPS Amazon Sunday Delivery at 40 of 134 hubs”

  2. At my station in San Francisco its the norm for carriers to scan parcels in and get ot for it.
    CCa barely passed probation. Held down one of the better routes and now a 204b. never even came close to paying her dues.

  3. the new post master said to start acting like a real business, but you have supervisor’s with only a high school degree (good job to graduate) but if we were a real business you would have college graduate’s in some of these supervisor positions, supervisor now are janitors that moved up, CCA’s that go into supervisor position, act like a business? really.

  5. These deliveries are being done by carrier “assistants” NOT actual career carriers!
    So many USPS jobs are being done by the lesser paid non-career employees even Supervisor jobs! This is just another way to bring about the destruction of the
    USPS (the last S is SERVICE!) another Commons that belongs to the PEOPLE of the
    USA being plundered and wrecked for corporate interest!

  6. That’s just the tip of the iceberg in Georgia, Rural carriers (RCA’s) perform clerk and city carriers work 7 days a week throughout the Atlanta District, pick any office in the 302 area, it’s the worst kept secret, APWU is nonexistence.

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