Increase Employee Engagement

Safety

Many employees transport, distribute, and handle mail involving physical labor and constant, often repetitive motion and lifting. Many are exposed to adverse weather conditions in the normal course of their duties. Safety is a critical issue.

Safety performance is tracked using methodology required by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). It measures the number of illnesses and injuries that occur per 100 full-time employees. The Postal Service supplements this with other more specific internal reporting systems, such as for motor vehicle accidents.

The Postal Service continued to make safety improvements; the OSHA illness and injuries frequency rate was 5.33 per 100 employees this year. This is a 5.77 percent improvement and equates to 5,316 fewer employee injuries and illnesses. The motor vehicle accident frequency rate was 8.88 per million miles. This is a 6.92 percent improvement from last year and equates to 2,263 fewer motor vehicle accidents. Efforts to raise employee awareness on avoiding injury and additional information on the programs and activities being pursued to create an even safer workplace environment are contained in Chapter 5.