The House is looking at another postal reform bill, but does it have a chance of becoming law?  A lot of money has been spent lobbying Congress for legislation to fix the USPS, with not much to show for it. wo weeks ago the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform released a draft of “The Postal Service Reform Act of … Read More
West Virginia floods disrupt postal operations, close post offices
Due to the severe flooding in West Virginia, postal operations and delivery in parts of the state have been disrupted. Alaycording to a service alert on USPS.com, postal officials are making efforts to get mail to plants for processing but the safety of employees is the primary concern. The alert also states, “Customers may also to contact their local Post … Read More
Postal Service releases financial report for May 2016: Shipping services continue to surge
The Postal Service posted its May 2016 financial report with the Postal Regulatory Commission today. As usual, declines in First Class and Standard mail are more than offset by dramatic increases in the volume and revenue from package and shipping services. And as usual, were it not for the obligated prepayments to the Retiree Healthcare Benefit Fund (RHBF), the Postal … Read More
The PRC’s Public Representative recommends changes for emergency suspensions
he Postal Regulatory Commission may take another look at the issues surrounding emergency suspensions of post offices. The Commission’s Public Representative has filed extensive comments for the Commission’s 701 Report to Congress and the President.  This report provides an opportunity for the Commission and industry stakeholders to assess the effectiveness of the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act and to make recommendations for improving postal … Read More
Postal stakeholders file comments for the PRC’s 701 report to the President and Congress
Yesterday was the deadline for comments concerning the Postal Regulatory Commission’s 701 Report, which the Commission is required to prepare at least every five years, under the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act (PAEA). As the Commission explains  in its notice seeking comments, the 701 Report is directed to  the President and Congress, and it is supposed to address  (1) the operation of the amendments made by … Read More
Obama’s nominee to the Supreme Court stumbles over the Venice Post Office
Judge Merrick Garland, President Obama’s nominee to the Supreme Court, was one of the judges on the D.C. Circuit that reviewed an appeal over the closing of the historic post office in Venice, California.  In July 2014, the Court dismissed the appeal, with Judge Garland writing the opinion explaining why. As reported in an article by the Free Venice Beachhead, the lawyer who filed … Read More
Two post offices slated for closure will remain open
Two post offices facing imminent closure — both of which have pending appeals with the Postal Regulatory Commission — will not be closing after all.  The post office in Winchester, Illinois, and the contract post office in Westbrookville, New York, were both due to close over contract issues, but the issues were resolved last week and both offices will remain open. The post office in … Read More
Winchester IL post office faces emergency suspension over lease issue
The City of Winchester, Illinois, has just filed an appeal with the Postal Regulatory Commission challenging the Postal Service’s decision to close the post office over a lease renewal issue. Winchester is the county seat of Scott County, and its post office serves several government agencies, the administrative offices for the public school system, and numerous businesses.  The post office … Read More
USPS on-time delivery performance for Q2 2016 improves but still below targets
Yesterday the Postal Service released its service performance reports for the second quarter of FY 2016 (January – March). Overall, the reports show that on-time delivery has been improving — after dropping precipitously in January 2015, when phase 2 of Network Rationalization began — but the numbers continue to fall short of the Postal Service’s targets. For example, in Q2 2016, 93.9 … Read More
GAO questions USPS cost savings on POStPlan, USPS questions GAO’s tone
The Government Accountability Office has just issued a report about the cost savings the Postal Service may have achieved with POStPlan, the initiative that reduced hours at 13,000 small post offices and eliminated their postmaster positions.  As the report makes clear, the plan has not saved the $500 million a year that the Postal Service had projected.  It’s hard to say, … Read More
Amazon deliveries and at-risk workers lead to more accidents and injuries at the Postal Service
Last week the Postal Service shared some information with the Postal Regulatory Commission about accidents and safety issues. As one might expect, the increased use of all those recently hired postal workers — 117,000 in 2015 — is leading to more injuries and accidents. Replacing experienced career employees with inexperienced non-career employee comes at a cost both to the Postal … Read More
Measuring employee engagement: The Postal Service shares its scores on Postal Pulse
A couple of weeks ago, the Postal Service announced that it was starting the second round of the Postal Pulse.  That’s the Postal Service’s name for the Gallup Q12, the world’s most famous employee engagement survey.  The Postal Service decided to switch to the Q12 after using the Voice of the Employee survey for many years because, as explained in the … Read More
Lightening strikes twice in the Ozarks: Another post office gets suspended
During fiscal year 2015, the Postal Service closed about 90 post offices for emergency suspensions. Â Five of them were in Missouri, and one was in the Ozark Mountains. Â This week signs appeared on the door of another Ozark post office saying it would be closed soon too. In January 2015, the Postal Service suspended the post office in Rockbridge, which … Read More
What’s up with the cost savings for phase 2 of Network Rationalization?
For over three years, the Postal Service has been saying that phase 2 of its Network Rationalization plan would save $750 million annually, but now that many of the plant consolidations have been fully or partly implemented, it appears that the initiative may not be saving anything like that. Â In fact, phase 2 may be losing money. As reported by … Read More
Round two of Postal Pulse begins, but what happened in round one?
According to a notice posted on USPS Blue, the Postal Service began conducting the second round of the Postal Pulse survey yesterday. Postal Pulse is the Postal Service’s name for the Gallup Q12 survey, one of the most widely used employee engagement surveys in the world. (A copy of the Postal Pulse survey is here; its twelve questions are identical … Read More
Emergency Suspensions of Post Offices in FY 2015
According to its Annual Compliance Reports to the Postal Regulatory Commission, the Postal Service did not discontinue a single post office in FY 2014 and FY 2015. Thanks to public protest and pressure from Congress, there appears to be an unofficial moratorium on post office closures. If Senator Carper’s IPOST bill becomes law, this moratorium will become official and no … Read More