Senators Respond to GAO Report on U.S. Postal Service Delivery Performance Measurement
Senators Tom Carper (D-Del.), Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.), Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), and Jon Tester (D-Mont.), members of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, responded to a new Government Accountability Office (GAO)
WASHINGTON – Today, Senators Tom Carper (D-Del.), Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.), Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), and Jon Tester (D-Mont.), members of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, responded to a new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report that found the on-time mail delivery performance results provided by the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) and Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) are not complete and may not give an accurate assessment of service for many communities across the country.
The report, “Actions Needed to Make Delivery Performance Information More Complete, Useful and Transparent,” outlines deficiencies in the Postal Service’s measurement capabilities and makes recommendations to Congress to direct USPS and the PRC to improve the completeness, analysis and transparency of delivery performance information. Specifically, GAO called on USPS and the PRC to include more detail on the Postal Service’s performance beyond the national level to include area and district performance.
“As my colleagues and I have heard through numerous committee hearings, round tables, and countless conversations with postal customers, stakeholders, and management, service across the country, particularly in rural communities, is suffering,” said Senator Carper, Ranking Member on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. “In order to fix these service problems, we need to figure out their root causes. Unfortunately, the Government Accountability Office found that the delivery performance results that the Postal Service and Postal Regulatory Commission provide do not give Congress or postal customers an accurate assessment of service. While the Postal Service can and should take steps to address these serious shortcomings in performance and transparency, Congress must also help the Postal Service get better in this area. My bill, iPOST, would help put the “service” back in Postal Service by stabilizing operations and requiring measurable improvements to delivery performance across the country. It would also require the Postal Service to publicize its performance data on its website so customers in all areas of the country can assess how the Postal Service is doing in their communities. I look forward to continuing to work with my colleagues in Congress, including Senators Heitkamp, Tester, and McCaskill, the Administration, and stakeholders to strengthen my bill and understand new ways we can help the Postal Service improve and maintain quality service across the country.”
“There is no question that mail delivery and service in rural areas like North Dakota are seriously lacking,” said Sen. Heitkamp. “Through my Fix My Mail initiative I’ve heard about the challenges residents face getting mail on time, and an independent report I requested backed up those stories showing severe mail delivery problems in my state. As we learned from this new GAO report, how can the Postal Service possibly improve delivery in rural communities if it doesn’t accurately track the time it takes to deliver mail to these areas? There is no reason why we shouldn’t have access to that data. But we can change that. Senator Carper and I worked to include provisions in his bill to require the Postal Service provide definitions for urban, suburban, and rural communities, and mandate mail delivery performance goals that hold the agency accountable for improving delivery in underperforming communities. The reality is that rural communities, like North Dakota, are disproportionately and unfairly impacted by cuts to mail service and delivery which have harsh impacts on families and small businesses living in those regions. But with real data at their disposal, as this bill would require, the Postal Service will know exactly where it needs to make changes.”
“Today’s report makes clear what we’d suspected about USPS service for rural Americans—that the Postal Service is unable to accurately measure its delivery times in rural areas. Until the Postal Service is able to accurately assess their own performance and address their ability to deliver on-time mail to rural customers, they can’t possibly consider further consolidations of processing facilities and post office closures,” said Senator McCaskill.
“Montanans tell me that there are serious delays in mail delivery and yet time and time again the USPS tells me they’re doing great,” said Senator Tester. “ We clearly need better data that reflects what’s actually happening on the ground. This report confirms what many of us in rural America have been hearing from our constituents for years.”
Over the past few years, in an effort to reduce costs and resize its vast network of processing and distribution plants, the U.S. Postal Service has shifted more and more mail volume from overnight to two to three day delivery. In response to concerns vocalized by constituents with delays in service beyond the Postal Service’s self-regulated delivery standards, Senators Carper, McCaskill, Heitkamp, and Tester requested GAO review the Postal Service’s ability to accurately measure delivery performance versus delivery standards across the nation and in some of the more rural areas of the country.
Highlights of report – GAO: USPS, PRC Needs to Make Mail Delivery Performance Information More Complete, Useful, and Transparent
The unions throw some money toward a congressman, and they issue a statement on postal reform, and nothing changes. In an election year coming up, do you really think we are going to see changes now? Nope- this is just a game to get a little more $ in their pockets. The longer I’m in this business, the more I laugh.
The senators and any other critics of letter carriers need to carry a couple of months of park and loop
Senator Claire Mcaskill needs to visit her home town of Rolla, Mo. & see for herself what is going on inside the PO! PS don’t tell them you are coming to visit.
We know the root cause is called Congress AKA the Postal Reform Act of 2006
Election year in 2016. Preparing and still nothing will get done.
Congress is GRANDSTANDING!!..What good does it do to measure a problem instead of just fixing it..Its the PAEA and the prefunding thats started this mess and Congress knows it.. I believe that the USPS is trying to determine what part of America is profitable for mail delivery therefore abanding its UNIVERSAL OBLIGATION and leaving the leftovers for private entities..
Yes, Senator…”We’re doing great”!
That comment says it all in what I could say in several pages. It’s very easy to isolate the problems and identify the root cause: piss poor management. Period.
Why believe USPS management after they have lied and tampered with their figures and perjured themselves before Congress over and over? This is the type of situation where people who could do something meaningful, like Congress, are either gullible or clearly not interested and just doing lip service. Either that or they’re on the take or otherwise involved in ways I don’t want to imagine.
Service is bad because the new crop of carriers at least on the city side, and from what I’ve heard, the rural too, are being bullied to extremes to run as fast as possible, ignore maintenance, like forwarding mail properly, getting the right mail to the right customer, and knowing what to do with mail that is undeliverable. Management does not train them on such points and in fact tells new hirees not to “worry” about forwarding mail. Local management tells them to just take it all, ignore vacancies and change of addresses, and let the regular clean up the mess, all in the interest of possibly dismantling eight hour routes, thus taking away full time positions, and of course, the bonuses they receive at year’s end.
These bonuses are awarded on the backs of their craft. They contribute nothing but playing with numbers that are useless as far as we’re concerned. They deliberately miscount our mail and parcels, and try to force us out on the street earlier by not giving us the time allotted to perform necessary tasks. Older wiser carriers do what has to be done, but young ones respond to the harassment, and with only a few exceptions, do a terrible job on the street.
The same scenario is prevalent in all craft areas. It’s the equivalent of a boss handing you $10, and ordering you to go to the store next door and bring back $20 worth of merchandise. It cannot be done, and they know it. It’s endemic in management all over the country in all forms of business.
That’s your problem, Congress. Greed in a “service”, and trying to skim profits from a non-profit entity. You want meaningful reform? Investigate USPS management from the top down, thoroughly and completely. Remove those who are stealing from the postal kitty, abusing employees and committing other crimes.
I do not expect anybody to take my suggestions seriously. I have 31 years in, so I don’t know jack shit, at least in the eyes of an ass kissing manager half my age who got there by being a rat and or a relative.
Stop relying on the postal service to tell you what the postal service is doing!
From it’s beginning the Postal Service has been about service and all of a sudden it’s purpose for being has been scuttled ! Who are these culprits ? FIRE ’em ! ! Show them how fast you can cut a last day paycheck ! ! !