The U.S. Postal Service is consolidating some of its mail processing facilities. Before doing so, USPS must give public notice of the proposed changes and provide information on how the changes will affect costs, employees, and mail service.

But we found that USPS’s process for estimating the costs of these changes doesn’t align with best practices we considered. For example, USPS doesn’t document all the assumptions and methodologies it uses to develop cost estimates. This information would help decision-makers and oversight groups better understand any risks or uncertainty involved in the estimates.

The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) uses a multistep process—called Mail Processing Facility Reviews (MPFR)—to review proposed consolidations to mail processing facilities. As part of that process, USPS provides public notice and an opportunity for public input on proposed consolidations. USPS also analyzes the effects that proposed consolidations may have on costs and savings, USPS employees, and mail service performance. Since starting the MPFR process in July 2023, USPS has initiated 59 reviews. In May 2024, USPS announced it was pausing all in-process MPFRs until January 2025. According to USPS’s announcement, this decision was in part a response to concerns from the public and Congress about the effects of facility consolidations. During this pause, USPS announced changes in scope for 16 MPFRs.

GAO found that the cost and savings analysis (cost estimate) USPS conducts as part of the MPFR process aligned with (i.e., fully or substantially met) four selected best practices but did not align with (i.e., partially met, minimally met, or did not meet) four others.

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