USPS Needs Reform to Survive : Cut It Loose from the Feds

If you really want to improve the performance of the United States Post Office, the only and best way to do that is to cut it lose from the government, letting it sink or swim on it's own. It seems that every time the USPS comes under the eye of the federal regulators, in this case the GAO, and other interested parties demanding a fix, congress steps in and says hands off.

Why is that? Who in congress leads the charge to do business as usual? Can it be that making big changes requires a hard look at the unions?  dah!

Actions Needed to Make USPS Delivery Performance Information More Complete, Useful, and Transparent
Source: United States Government Accountability Office, "Actions Needed to Make Delivery Performance Information More Complete," Government Accountability Office, September 30, 2015.

October 14, 2015

 Lately, the United States Postal Service (USPS) has had to balance cost-cutting actions to address its poor financial situation with efforts to provide prompt, affordable and reliable mail service. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) was asked to review how USPS measures its delivery performance. The Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) had previously carried out assessments but they are not as useful as they could be for effective oversight because they do not include sufficient analysis to hold USPS accountable for meeting its statutory mission to provide service in all areas of the nation, including rural areas.

The recommendations the GAO made are the following: To improve the completeness of USPS delivery performance, the PRC should hold a public proceeding to address how USPS can improve the completeness of its delivery performance information.

To improve the usefulness and transparency of reporting, the Postmaster General should provide additional information such as trend data for on-time delivery performance for all 67 postal districts.

To improve the usefulness and transparency of USPS's and PRC's reporting of delivery performance information, the PRC should provide readily available data and additional analysis of the information to better understand trends and variations in mail delivery performance.

The GAO had previously stated that achieving complete, useful and transparent delivery performance information is essential for USPS to achieve its desired balance.