Citing a reduction of 68,000 employees in the past two years
and “new operational efficiencies” that improved cumulative
productivity by over five percent, the Postal Service says
that its transformation plan is working.
Its 2004 progress report noted the addition of about 1.8
million delivery points to the universal delivery network,
and USPS said service performance has reached record levels —
for example, overnight first-class mail was running at an all
time high of 96 percent in the third quarter of fiscal 2004.
Postal workers are more satisfied now according to a “voice
of the employee” survey, and USPS attributes part of its
success to “cross-functional meetings at all levels of
management” that ensure managers understand how the plan
should work, how it’s built, and the milestones they are
trying to reach.
Comprehensive bi-partisan postal reform legislation pending
in both the House and Senate is currently stalled partly due
to White House opposition to a provision in the bill that
would transfer the cost of military service retirement
benefits from USPS of around $27 billion back to the
Department of Treasury.
