Postal Service: Mail Delivery Service in the Washington Metropolitan Area

GAO discussed the mail delivery service in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. GAO noted that: (1) service has been consistently below the national average since the establishment of the External First-Class Measurement System in 1990; (2) the Postal Service was unable to deal with the unexpected growth in local mail volume in 1994 due to inadequate staff resulting from the 1992 downsizing; (3) the Postal Service's mail processing problems include duplicative handling of mail received in Northern Virginia, overnight service areas that are geographically too large, and mail arriving too late for normal processing; (4) the Postal Service has increased staffing to deal with these service delivery problems; (5) the Postal Service has attempted to eliminate duplicative handling of mail in Northern Virginia in order to expedite service and has processed mail at an auxiliary facility in Southern Maryland to better serve the outlying areas; and (6) postal management and labor unions must work together to address long-standing problems in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area that adversely affect service.