It should finally be clear to all: the presumption that what the Postal Service considers standards for service in any way relates to the service that the average person will experience is completely wrong.
As illustrated in its recent filing with the Postal Regulatory Commission, the USPS now segments its calculation of service into three pieces: from the sender to the origin processing facility, between processing facilities, and from the destination processing facility to the recipient.
“Leg 1,” as it’s called, is one or two days depending on whether the post office of mailing is within or outside a 50-mile range from the originating regional processing and distribution center. However, in the agency’s calculation, the two days applicable to the distant offices aren’t counted as two – one day is considered “day 0,” thus avoiding any negative impact on the days the USPS gives itself to provide service under its arbitrary standards.
“Leg 2,” the travel between RPDCs and between the destination RPDC and the local processing center serving the recipient’s post office, is based on distance. However, under the agency’s latest revised service standards, that distance is now greater because of earlier dispatch from origin (since only mail within 50 miles needs to be processed before dispatch). This affords the USPS with more time to meet this portion of its 2-, 3-, 4-, or 5-day standard.
Finally, for “Leg 3,” delivery to the addressee is assumed to be on the same day as that mail is sent from the destination LPC to the delivery unit, regardless of the route it takes or how far the delivery office may be from the LPC.
So, overall, the Postal Service assumes one day for “Legs” 1 and 3, but measures only “Leg 2” – the time it’s allowed itself to move mail from receipt at the origin RPDC to dispatch from the destinating LPC. The resulting number, allegedly a “service standard,” is in no way the actual time it takes for mail to travel from the sender to the recipient.
As a result, even if the true travel time between sender and recipient is much longer, the Postal Service can claim it met the published “standard” for 2-, 3-, 4-, or 5-day service it set for itself, mostly because the USPS chooses to simply not count the additional days actually taken.
For example, an item mailed on Saturday morning at a post office that’s beyond the 50-mile range from the RPDC won’t leave that office until Monday morning (there’s no Saturday afternoon collection). Presumably, the item would be processed at the origin RPDC on Monday and travel to the destination RPDC and LPC, arriving according to plan in five days, i.e., on Saturday. Depending on the exact arrival time of the item at the destinating LPC, it may miss the LPC’s early Saturday morning dispatches to delivery units. If the LPC doesn’t operate late Saturday and/or on Sunday, the item may not be sent to the delivery office until Monday. And, under the Postal Service’s calculations, Sundays don’t count.
However, there’s another wrinkle: if the LPC doesn’t send mail directly to the delivery office – if it’s 150 miles away, for example – the mail for that delivery unit may go by way of a sort and delivery center where it’s cross-docked to the delivery office. In turn, the travel time to such a distant delivery unit may cause the item to not arrive in time for same day delivery, unless the dispatch from the S&DC to that delivery unit leaves very early or the carriers’ start times aren’t until late in the morning. Possibly, therefore, in the case of such a remote delivery unit, the item may not be available for delivery until Tuesday.
Of course, according to the Postal Service, the item would have been delivered “on time” based on how it counts days and its self-defined five-day standard, but for the sender and recipient, the item took at least ten days to be delivered. Though the USPS would crow about how it met its standard, but the experience of the ratepaying customers would have been significantly different; they don’t care about how the Postal Service counts, but they do care about real service.
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