U.S. Postal Service employees in San Francisco move 32 percent less mail per hour than the typical processing and distribution center for the rest of the nation, according to a watchdog report.
“While the San Francisco P&DC has increased efficiency, there are more opportunities for improvement. We found it did not attain the efficiency achieved by similarly sized P&DCs,” said the USPS inspector general in a report made public Thursday.
“Specifically, in fiscal year 2013, the San Francisco P&DC processed mail at a rate of 795 pieces per work-hour, whereas the similarly sized P&DC at the median productivity level processed mail at the rate of 1,054 pieces per work-hour,” the IG report said.
“Accordingly, the San Francisco P&DC processed 259 fewer pieces per work-hour than the comparable P&DC,” the IG said.
The San Francisco facility handled approximately 1.41 billion pieces of mail in 2013, a decrease of 8.6 percent compared to 2012.
The IG pointed to four factors to explain the San Francisco facility’s poor performance: “This occurred because management did not adjust work-hours to workload, analyze operational efficiency through benchmarking, adequately supervise employees, or fully utilize automation equipment.”
Addressing those factors could result in significant savings in work-hours and costs, the IG said.
“Consequently, the facility was using more work-hours than necessary to process mail volume. We identified specific mail processing functional areas that could be more efficient, resulting in 486,781 fewer work-hours and an annual cost avoidance of over $21 million.”
Go here for the full report.
Mark Tapscott is executive editor of the Washington Examiner.
