Postal Service could have avoided paying almost 7 million of the 28 million overtime hours for full-time city letter carriers
Our analysis identified that, during FY 2009, city delivery supervisors scheduled full-time city delivery carriers to use overtime hours to deliver the mail on city routes.
Management actually expended overtime hours at a cost of more than $282 million, rather than use available and lower-cost PTF and transitional straight-time workhours at a cost of about $160 million. Using the lower cost employees would have saved approximately $122 million (see Table 1).
City Delivery Workforce Planning
The Postal Service’s workforce planning for city letter carriers did not always optimize its resources by maximizing the use of available and lower-cost part-time and
transitional carriers to reduce overtime costs for delivering the mail. Based on workload trends, vacancies, absences, and mail volume, supervisors decide either to use
overtime with full-time carriers or staff routes with part-time or transitional city letter carriers to ensure mail is delivered on routes.
The U.S. Postal Service is delivering fewer pieces of mail to a growing number of addresses as new households and businesses are added to the delivery network each year. During the past 3 years, the Postal Service reduced its city letter carrier workforce and workload; however, financial losses continue to occur while salary and benefits will continue to increase. The Postal Service must achieve unprecedented levels of efficiency to accommodate this new growth while facing financial loss from declining mail volume.
Conclusion
The Postal Service’s workforce planning process for city letter carriers did not always optimize available resources. In fiscal year (FY) 2009, the Postal Service could have avoided paying almost 7 million of the 28 million overtime hours for full-time city letter carriers by maximizing available, lower cost carrier resources to deliver the mail.
City Delivery Workforce Planning
Delivery management often used full-time city delivery carriers in overtime status to deliver the mail when using lower cost part-time and transitional carriers would have been more economical. Based on workload trends, vacancies, absences, and mail volume, supervisors decide either to use overtime with full-time carriers or staff routes with part-time or transitional city letter carriers to ensure mail is delivered on routes.
Postal Service Headquarters and area officials have implemented initiatives aimed at improving delivery operation performance including reducing managers’ daily administrative burdens,1 implementing new staffing tools, and improving daily communication of office operations. Moreover, area officials have primarily focused on increasing route efficiency and reducing overall workhours. However, management has not fully developed an overall city delivery operations strategy that optimizes resources and focuses on the type of workhours used and the associated staff costs to deliver the mail on city routes. See Appendix B for our detailed analysis of this topic.
By not optimizing all city carrier staffing resources, the Postal Service unnecessarily incurred excess costs of over $153 million in FY 2008 and approximately $122 million in FY 2009. Additionally, operating costs of more than $275 million could be reduced over a 2 year period (FYs 2010 and 2011). See Appendix C for our monetary impact calculations.
We recommend the vice president, Delivery and Post Office Operations:
1. Collaborate with area management to develop and implement an overall city delivery operations strategy that optimizes the most cost-effective combination of full-time, part-time, and transitional city carrier resources to reduce overtime workhours and costs.
Another possibility is that Potter is deliberately wasting money so he can make the USPS look as broke as he says they are. He has said for about a year and half that the USPS business model is broken, has he made this into a self fulfilling prophecy ?????????
Should Congress open an investigation into the USPS asking questions such as, why are they removing and junking all the blue collection boxes, why they took all automated postage machines out of postal lobbies when they were highly profitable, why, as the Office of Inspector General just found out, they are not using less expensive employees to deliver the mail instead of paying overtime, why the management structure calls for 40+ Vice-Presidents ?
Why does the OIG have to recommend that the USPS use common sense and do the job correctly? What has happened to managerial accountability?
If a similar situation was happening in the outside world of private business there would be an immediate accounting. In postal management everyone is protected regardless of how badly they perform. That is Postmaster Potter’s legacy, management that esentially has no responsible for following good business practices, and, no accountability when don’t.
Everybody should have jobs that no one cares how they perform in them.
It is like the Russian beuracracy, everyone has a protector so they cannot be fired no matter what.
Can anyone tell me why we waste millions to let trucks idle while carriers finger dps?Rurals case mail and organized parcels in the office-delivery is quick and efficient-the mounted city rts are on the street hours longer-wasting fuel and racking up overtime?Why is more’street time’ your golden standard? The more control employees have over their own work procedures-the more skin they have in the game-the greater hope to take pride in a job well done. More and more waves of waste and stupidity reign down from on high.
Let’s start at the top, first you have 32 Vice presidents (you have got to be kidding me?) How many people are just under all those people in each department. We need carriers, clerks and mail handlers to do just what we are paid for “DELIVER THE MAIL.” We have no use for so many supervisors to watch supervisors to watch more supervisors. We need people to work the mail. We need to satisfy the customer not play “Cat & Mouse” games when we are at work. We need our pride back of doing a good job, not always the negative remarks. If your at the top, when was the last time you delivered some of those “Red Plum” advertising flats. That is a disgrace of a product. We need people to serve not supervisors and managers all the way to the top to play numbers games. Just deliver the mail in a timely fashion and do it with pride.
And what fraction is that of Obamas last failed Asian excursion? And how much would we save if we hire part time or privatized pencil pushers Mr. OIG clerk? Better yet, on the time you spent analyzing this, could you have developed software that would help Federal people retire in a timely and painless manner?
And what else are the under qualified supervisors doing to ruin the P O ??
The problem is at what increments the overtime was used, was it the case of a carrier working 1/2 hour at the end of his shift to complete his delivers, and what are the options in this case, have the carrier return to the station with his undelivered mail and then call in a TE or PTF to go back out to the route to complete the route, this inevitable saves the overtime but would extend the time for the customer to get there mail. The real fix is that in the AM, the carrier supervisors needs to listen to the carrier when they say they need help, before they leave the office. The next problem is, are there vehicles available, current policy is one vehicle for each route, no extra vehicles at the stations. So even if you had a TE or PTF, is there a vehicle for them to use???? These studies and resulting savings are suspect as they are generated by the OIG not save any money, but to justify there existence.
these same supervisors are also working extra hrs add that to the equation. what is being done to these supervisors??? nothing, thats what
The TE’s at my office sit at home waiting for a phone call while the regulars are out in the dark on OT. They even reduced the number of TE’s while the PTF’s and Regulars continue to rake in the OT. No brains in this outfit..
As a letter carrier I agree with this study. The only problem is the PO has let the TE’s go in my area for lack of work. What butt brains we have.
It starts at the top. The PO has always been poorly managed. Replace the inept help at the top and you will see better management down the ladder. “Workers” are NOT the ones that make the decisions as to how things are run/managed. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure this out. Why not check back 5-10 years or more and then calculate just how much money has been foolishly spent by Fred Flintstone & Barney ………….