WASHINGTON — The U.S. Postal Service will take a close look at internal service areas, such as Business Mail Entry Units, chief operating officer Pat Donahoe said at the quarterly Mailers Technical Advisory Committee meeting at postal headquarters here yesterday.
Seventy-five percent of the USPS’ revenue and volume goes through the back of these facilities, Donahoe said, “so we really have to make sure that we do a really good [job] from a service standpoint and a timeliness standpoint.”
In particular, he said new Department of Transportation rules affected some dropship schedules of Periodical and Standard mailers.
“We need to make sure we are taking care of all workers from a service standpoint and a cycle-time standpoint to make sure that all get through in a satisfactory manner,” he said.
Donahoe said the postal service will continue to improve service across the board and in all categories of mail this year, and focus on delivery costs as well. He also said the USPS will focus on two new programs — APPPS and PARS — this year.
APPS, or Automated Package Processing System, will replace more than 100 mechanized small parcel and bundle sorting machines at 70 postal facilities nationwide. The system is expected to boost productivity by reducing manual handling.
PARS, the postal automated redirection system, is an automated mail forwarding process, Using new and enhanced automation equipment and recognition technology, PARS will identify and intercept undeliverable-as-addressed letters earlier in the sorting process and automatically redirect them to the correct addresses.
Donahoe also asked attendees to make an effort to focus on address accuracy and readability.
