USPS OIG Report: Delivery Operations – Additional Carrier Services
8 out of 22 suggestions are based on door-to-door delivery
This report presents the results of our self-initiated review of the U.S. Postal Service’s potential to expand carrier services. Additional carrier services are those not directly related to the delivery of letters, printed matter, or mailable packages. The objective of this review was to assess opportunities for the Postal Service to add carrier services to delivery operations .
We also identified some additional services foreign posts offer. India Post, for example, allows carriers to collect data to help establish the nation’s consumer price index. The Austrian Post also allows the shipment of limited amounts of hazardous material and provides temperature-controlled shipping containers for temperature-sensitive shipments. The Denmark Post provides welfare equipment for elderly and chronic patients, including delivery and pickup services, and mobile postage, where customers can buy stamps directly using their mobile phones or Smartphones.
PR note: France announced plans for its postal workers to use a smartphone app known as Digishoot, which would take images that are certified, geolocated and dated for the insurance industry. “While on their rounds, postal workers could deliver shopping to the homes of older residents, take pictures of car accidents, or water damage at an individual’s home, and send that information directly to insurance companies. La Poste workers, who are out on the streets six days a week, could also alert local councils to potentially dangerous damage to roads.”
The Postal Service has been operating at a deficit because of declining mail volume and revenue. To address budget issues and increase profit, the Postal Service proposed several cost-cutting initiatives in its Five-Year Business Plan,3 such as eliminating Saturday delivery, recalculating retirement prefunding obligations, and downsizing the workforce. The Postal Service’s efforts to eliminate budget deficits did not focus on taking advantage of the delivery “last mile.” Additional carrier services could increase revenue and enhance the Postal Service brand.
The Postal Service could increase the value of delivery operations, bolster revenue, and address community needs by offering additional carrier services. We identified a variety of services that could generate revenue, such as monitoring services for the elderly, collecting air quality data, verifying identification, delivering prescriptions on the same day, updating maps, and reporting on traffic conditions.
Some of these ideas may not be immediately feasible due to legal restrictions, but management should consider them. However, the Postal Service could generate revenue immediately by selling advertising space on its delivery vehicles.
The Postal Service agreed with the premise of advertising on its delivery vehicles and studied the issue during our review. A market analysis the Postal Service conducted during our review estimated a revenue potential of about $15 million in FY 2014 and $30 million in FY 2015 from this initiative. However, officials said revenue opportunities would be hampered by market saturation and because the Postal Service could only advertise a few products and services on delivery vehicles without harming its brand
Additional Carrier Services Suggested in Proposed Legislation
In 2009, the Postal Service asked Congress to change the law so it could offer non-postal products and services to generate additional revenue. Several bills have been introduced that propose removing existing prohibitions and suggest new products and services the Postal Service could offer to raise revenue.
For example, the 21st Century Postal Service Act of 2012 (S.1789), which passed in the Senate on April 26, 2012, would allow the Postal Service to offer non-postal products or services if the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) determines they:
? Use the Postal Service’s processing, transportation, delivery, and retail network, or its technology.
? Respond to public interest and a demonstrated demand for the Postal Service to offer them.
? Do not create unfair competition with the private sector.
? Have the potential to improve the Postal Service’s financial condition
Highlighted suggestions are based on “The Postal Service has delivery routes that require carriers to leave their delivery vehicles to perform door-to-door delivery.”
Other suggestions on the list:
Serving Court Documents – The carrier would serve court documents, such as warrants, foreclosure notices, and subpoenas, to customers. Postal Service carriers perform similar services with delivery of Registered and Certified Mail that may include court documents requiring an addressee signature
Crime Prevention Services – Cameras Mounted on Delivery Vehicles – This service would monitor customers’ neighborhoods for crime. Postal Service carriers would report suspicious activities or unlawful entries during normal street delivery on routes that include park-and-loop, foot, curbside, and dismount. Postal Service carriers are performing some crime prevention service informally through the Carrier Alert program. There may be concerns about cameras mounted on delivery vehicles due to possible liabilities related to customers’ perception of carriers monitoring their activities as agents of law enforcement. The Postal Service could partner with companies for customer home monitoring services while carriers deliver mail on their routes to generate revenue.
Delivery of Heavy Items – This service would provide delivery of larger, heavier items, such as pianos, furniture, equipment, or oversized containers. The Postal Service has restrictions on the size and weight for mailpieces that carriers lift and deliver to customers which would need to be examined
Recommendations
We recommend the executive vice president, chief Marketing and Sales officer, in coordination with the vice president, Delivery and Post Office Operations:
1. Develop and implement a strategy to identify, evaluate, and offer the most promising additional carrier services.
2. Jointly conduct a pilot test on delivery vehicle advertising and gather sufficient data during the pilot to support the decision to continue or discontinue the concept
You dummies at OIG, I deliver in the inner city with a high crime rate, drugs, killings and so forth. and you want us to go and do legal stuff, I don’t think so we would lose the trust of our customers, get the courts to do that crap, not us, we could beat up, no thanks.
Don’t forget that rural carriers will have to do all this and still be under their evaluated time…Yeah Right.
Do you think that the OIG forgot to ask the people who would have to do these “extras” what they thought of them? Time for OIG to have a part of their blog where people can respond to their reports AFTER they come out.
Heavy items such as pianos or furniture??? Like those would fit in an LLV. And 1 carrier to unload them? I’m sure they would deny that OT request. Oh wait. We keep crushing more and more carriers into “central offices” and are packed in like sardines. So where will we store these items?
Heavy items? They better keep Mvs
We could eliminate the Medical Examiner and have carrier collect dead bodies.
Oh, yes. It’s not like they don’t have enough to do already.
Just create and go about implementing these great ideas. Ship beer and spirits, offer wire and banking services, hunting and fishing licenses, notary services, etc.. We haven’t paid our 5.5 billion pre- funding in 2 years. Congress hasn’t shut us down yet. C’mon Donuthole!! Stop being a PUSSY and get some balls!!!! Lead this Great Service and STOP blowing ISSA!!!!