The Postal Service’s mail delivery performance standards, performance measurement and reporting all need improvement, the Government Accountability Office has said.
It said progress to improve delivery performance information has been slow and inadequate despite numerous agency and mailer efforts, partly due to a lack of continued management commitment and follow through on recommendations made by joint USPS-mailer committees, as well as technology limitations, data quality deficiencies, limited mailer participation in providing needed performance data, and costs.
USPS has initiatives to improve service and better track mail through its processing system, but it does not have any plans to implement and report on additional representative measures of delivery performance, according to GAO-06-733.
It said that some of USPS’s delivery standards for major types of mail have not been updated for years, and are unsuitable as benchmarks for setting realistic expectations for timely mail delivery, measuring delivery performance, or improving service, oversight, and accountability.
USPS plans corrective action to update some standards and make them more easily accessible, but GAO said USPS does not measure and report on its delivery performance for most types of mail, which will make it difficult to address problems and determine if the situation improves, as well as to hold management accountable for results and conduct independent oversight.
