USPS Office of Inspector General

The existing fleet of two-ton vehicles has aged to or is beyond its planned life cycle, requiring frequent repairs. Regardless of preventive maintenance performed, chassis and component parts break down, resulting in increased vehicle maintenance costs.

The Corporate Information Security Office (CISO) is responsible for protecting the Postal Service’s infrastructure against cyber threats that could disrupt operations to the 45,000 point of sale terminals, 2,837 retail kiosks, 8,500 mail processing equipment pieces, USPS.com, and more.

It is not uncommon that employees feel pressured to meet organizational goals, and as goals are raised, employees may turn to less-than-ethical means to meet them. As a result, work environments can fill up with unethical behavior that employees rationalize. Likewise, when employees detect unethical behavior, they may not feel comfortable reporting it.

Vehicle Maintenance Facility (VMF) workload management procedures were developed to maintain vehicles in a mechanically reliable, safe, and clean condition and to ensure vehicles are available for maximum mail delivery/transportation use. These procedures place primary emphasis on preventative maintenance rather than on major repairs.

Full-service Intelligent Mail barcodes (IMb) provide end-to-end visibility in the mail stream. It streamlines mail entry, expands access to scan data and mail-quality feedback to improve decision making, and improves efficiency. IMb further offers information about handling units and containers, and is used to assess service performance measurements.

The Postal Service strives to provide a safe and healthy workplace for its employees. USPS safety philosophy states that management, which encompasses all levels including the first-line supervisor, is responsible and accountable for the prevention of accidents and control of resultant losses.

The U.S. Postal Service uses highway contract routes (HCR) to transport mail between post offices and other designated points where mail is received or dispatched. An extra trip is one made in addition to those outlined in the contract; it results in added costs. Extra trips can be the result of late mail processing or early mail collection.

More than 42,000 Americans died from opioid-related overdoses in 2016 – five times higher than in 1999, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Illegal opioids, including increasingly potent synthetic versions such as fentanyl, account for about half of those deaths.

In May 2017, the Postmaster General described the need for a “continuous improvement mindset to compete for today’s customers and anticipate the needs of tomorrow’s customers.” According to the U.S. Postal Service, “continuous improvement is an ongoing effort to improve products, services, or processes.”

The Postal Service uses the Time and Attendance Control System (TACS) to capture work hours employees spend performing various mail processing operations. Employees record their time and the operations they work by swiping electronic badge readers. Each badge swipe records time in TACS and is referred to as a clock ring.