WHY THE OIG DID THE AUDIT
To assess districts using fewer carrier street hours than projected. Carrier street time (or street hours) is time a carrier spends delivering mail and not in the office. Routes have a base or projected street time that is, on average, 5 to 6 hours. When a route’s actual hours are under its base street time, the time is referred to as ‘less than projected.

WHAT THE OIG FOUND:
Opportunities exist to improve street efficiency in districts using fewer than the projected carrier street hours. In the 10 districts reviewed, we found more than 500,000 street hours were projected than needed during fiscal year 2011. This created an excess capacity of 33 city routes and vehicles. Excess city routes exist because some managers are not concerned with locations using fewer than the projected hours and routes are not always eliminated or consolidated. By eliminating the 33 city routes and transferring vehicles to rural delivery operations, the U.S. Postal Service could reduce rural delivery costs by $250,110 a year, or $500,220 over 2 years. This audit also identified assets at risk totaling $45,912 in two delivery units due to inadequate asset safeguards. Management immediately initiated corrective action on these security matters.

WHAT THE OIG RECOMMENDED:
We recommended that managers in the 10 districts eliminate 33 excess city delivery routes and reallocate the assigned delivery vehicles to rural routes. We also recommended that the 10 district managers continue to review those delivery units consistently using fewer than the projected street hours and make appropriate route adjustments, eliminations, and consolidations.

WHAT MANAGEMENT SAID:
Management in all 10 districts agreed with the recommendations, findings, and monetary impact. Management plan to take corrective action by June 2013. OIG Report: City Delivery – Excess Routes (PDF)