Federal Manager's Daily Report

Postal customers are flexible regarding the levels of service they will accept, although only within limits, the Postal IG has said in a report.

Service levels are among the major issues being debated on Capitol Hill as attempts have been made—unsuccessfully, so far—at reforms through legislation in recent years; also, USPS has now entered bargaining with two of its major unions, at which those issues are central.

The IG study, done with the Gallup research firm and George Washington University, concluded that both consumers and businesses “may be willing to accept lower levels of service to keep prices from rising sharply.” They would find more limited hours of operations at post offices acceptable but they do “place value on human interaction with a Postal Service employee at a post office” over options such as non-postal retail stores or self-service kiosks.

It also said that consumers overall are “indifferent” to Saturday delivery of mail but “still place some value on the Saturday delivery of parcels.”

Neither consumers nor businesses would favor reducing delivery days to as few as three; both place a high value on delivery to the door or curb rather than to cluster boxes or parcel lockers; and there is “not much acceptance of the Postal Service using digital alternatives to deliver the mail, such as the Postal Service scanning mail and sending it via e-mail.”