Performance Update

With its focus on managing workhours, controlling overtime and improving productivity, the Postal Service continues to realize cost-reductions in mail processing, customer service, delivery and supervisory/administrative areas, according to DPMG and COO Pat Donahoe.

Preliminary figures through August show total mail volume continues to decline — 3.8 percent below the same period last year (SPLY). The good news, says Donahoe, is that managers and employees have done a great job in matching workhours to workload — posting a year-to-date (YTD) reduction of 72 million workhours compared to SPLY.

Discussing preliminary YTD overnight delivery performance scores through August in this week’s “Field Updates,” Donahoe says the key to beginning strong next year will depend in large part on successfully meeting quarter 1 challenges in FY 2011 — Columbus Day, Veterans Day, election mail, and the end-of-year holiday mailing season.

Those opportunities, combined with renewed efforts to consolidate routes and facilities, will help USPS realize additional cost-reduction opportunities in FY 2011, according to Donahoe.