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Postal Service: Service Impact of South Dakota Mail Facility Not Fully Recognized

GGD-93-62 Published: Feb 25, 1993. Publicly Released: Feb 25, 1993.
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Highlights

Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO reviewed the Postal Service's planned changes in mail services to several rural communities in South Dakota scheduled to be served by a new area mail processing center, focusing on the effects the proposed central facility will have on postal customers.

Recommendations

Recommendations for Executive Action

Agency Affected Recommendation Status
United States Postal Service The Postmaster General should consider costs and benefits of options that would address the community-impact issues discussed in this report.
Closed – Implemented
After considering the complaints of postal customers in the affected area, the Postal Service made several changes to its plans for the consolidated mail facility. These included dropping one of the towns that was to be included, phasing in others one at a time to minimize disruptions in service, and maintaining certain services that were to be discontinued.
United States Postal Service The Postmaster General should, as a part of the Service's review of the area mail processing concept, include a requirement in the area mail processing guidelines to obtain and evaluate comments from affected communities before approving area mail processing consolidations in the future.
Closed – Implemented
New area mail processing guidelines were issued by the Postal Service in April 1995. They require that customer satisfaction and community impact be fully explored and documented in future proposals for all area mail processing consolidations.

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Topics

Cost controlMail delivery problemsMail transportation operationsPostal facilitiesPostal ratesPostal serviceRegional planningStandards evaluationCommunitiesCivil service