Postal Service

Planned Benefits of Iowa Automated Mail Facility Not Realized Gao ID: GGD-94-78 April 8, 1994

Automation at the Waterloo, Iowa, mail processing facility did not yield financial savings as the Postal Service had planned, nor did it improve productivity and delivery service. After the consolidation of mail operations in Mason City and Waterloo, mail processing workhours declined as expected in Mason City, but the workhour increase in Waterloo was larger than anticipated, and the combined hours for both facilities rose sharply. Despite the introduction of automation equipment, labor productivity declined. Transportation costs, instead of decreasing as planned, increased because of equipment upgrades and route changes. Although local overnight service in Mason City was maintained, some locations were no longer scheduled to receive overnight mail delivery, and the percentage of mail delivered on time to other overnight locations fell. Contrary to Postal Service guidelines, officials have not reviews the consolidations to determine whether their goals were attained. GAO believes that the Service should do such reviews to determine if consolidations in rural areas benefit the Service and its customers.

GAO found that: (1) automated mail processing operations at the Waterloo facility have not saved money or improved productivity as planned; (2) despite the introduction of automated equipment, labor productivity has decreased; (3) transportation costs have increased because of equipment upgrades and route changes; (4) some locations are no longer scheduled to receive overnight mail delivery, and the percentage of mail delivered on time to other overnight locations has decreased; (5) postal officials have not performed post-implementation consolidation reviews to determine if their goals were met; and (6) although postal officials believed that consolidated mail processing at Waterloo would not affect postal customers, the facility began receiving complaints alleging degraded service shortly after it consolidated operations.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

Director: Team: Phone:


The Justia Government Accountability Office site republishes public reports retrieved from the U.S. GAO These reports should not be considered official, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Justia.