Quarterly Performance for Package Services
Service Variance
Mailpieces Delivered Between 04/01/2012 and 06/30/2012

Overview

Package Services includes Single-Piece Parcel Post®, Media Mail®/Library Mail, Bound Printed Matter Flats, and Bound Printed Matter Parcels. Package Services includes both single-piece and presort volumes, with approximately 85 percent of the total represented by presort.

Service performance for Single-Piece Parcel Post®, Media Mail®/Library Mail, and Bound Printed Matter Parcels is measured using an internal USPS® system, the Product Tracking System (PTS). This system measures transit time from the time of mailing until the time of delivery to the intended recipient, on parcels for which a customer requested Delivery Confirmation™ service. The first en route scan serves as the proxy for the time of mailing for commercial and PC postage parcels that were not mailed over the counter. Transit time is compared against USPS® service standards to develop the measure of on-time service performance. The system measures service to and from virtually all 3-Digit ZIP Code™ areas for which Package Services volume originates or destinates.

Service performance for Bound Printed Matter Flats is measured using documented arrival time at a designated postal facility to start the measurement clock, and an Intelligent Mail® barcode (IMb™) scan by an external, third-party reporter to stop the clock. Mail piece tracking from IMb™ in-process scans is used in conjunction with the external data to extrapolate results to this entire volume of Full Service Intelligent Mail® Bound Printed Matter Flats mail. Data collected by the Postal Service™ are provided to an independent, external contractor to calculate service measurement and compile the necessary reports. The system used for this reporting is called Intelligent Mail® Accuracy and Performance System (iMAPS).

The external contractor determines service performance based on the elapsed time between the start-the-clock event recorded by the Postal Service™ and the stop-the-clock event recorded by anonymous households and small businesses that report delivery information directly to the contractor. The service measure consists of two parts: (1) how long mail pieces take to get through processing, and (2) how long mail takes from the last processing scan to delivery. The second portion is used as a delivery factor differential to determine the percent of all Bound Printed Matter Flats mail that is delivered on the last processing date versus the percent delivered after the last processing date. Service performance is measured by comparing the transit-time to the service standards to determine the percent of mail delivered on time.

The Service Performance Measurement (SPM) application of the Full Service Seamless Acceptance and Service Performance system (SASP) serves as the data source for iMAPS. SPM captures data from all Full Service Intelligent Mail® and applies business rules for service measurement before sending data to iMAPS.

In November 2010, the Postal Service™ established a new certification process for all commercial mailers. Only pieces tendered by mailers certified as compliant and accurate were included in service performance measurement through iMAPS in FY11 Q1 through Q3. No Bound Printed Matter Flats mailers were certified during those quarters; thus no service performance results were available. In FY11 Q4, the explicit certification of mailers was replaced by system changes that automated much of the certification process so that all Full Service mail could be evaluated for compliance. All pieces that met service performance business rules were included in measurement beginning in FY11 Q4.

Limitations

In FY12 Quarter 3, Bound Printed Matter Flats data through iMAPS were limited to mailers passing service performance business rules. End-To-End Bound Printed Matter Flats mail was excluded due to the extremely small volume of measurable pieces in the quarter. Furthermore, approximately 60 percent of the measurable Destination Entry Bound Printed Matter Flats for Quarter 3 were mailed in March and received within the first ten calendar days of Quarter 3.

Data for the delivery factor of Bound Printed Matter Flats was based on a combination of Bound Printed Matter Flats and Standard Mail® flats with Intelligent Mail® barcodes received by external reporters. The Standard Mail® flats data was used to supplement the very limited Bound Printed Matter Flats data available during this period. Because even the combination of those two types of mail still resulted in too little volume, EXFC flats were also used to supplement the data for calculating the delivery factor. As a result of the use of this proxy data, which may differ significantly from the actual product, the delivery factor may not be representative of the gap between estimated delivery based on the final automated processing and actual delivery for Bound Printed Matter Flats to every district.

In FY12 Quarter 3, the service performance results for Package Services through PTS were limited to the data available for retail parcels mailed end-to-end from over the counter and with Delivery Confirmation™ and the End-To-End commercial and PC postage parcels with Delivery Confirmation™. The first en route scan was used as the start-the-clock for the performance measurement of End-To-End parcels that were not mailed over the counter, with no adjustments for any transit time between acceptance and the first en route scan. The USPS® is in the process of developing an approach to account for the period from when the Postal Service™ receives the mail until the first en route scan of the mail. Results for Destination Entry parcels were not included in the measurement since the Postal Service™'s system did not have a method for capturing the location and date for the start-the-clock for such mail.

Due to the limitations of the current systems, the overall Package Services results are presented without any weighting. That is, no attempt was made to use the measured pieces to represent the entire Package Services population. These results represent the service performance for all measured Package Services pieces during the quarter.

Performance Highlights

National Package Services performance was 92.6 percent on time, with 98.6 percent delivered within the service standard plus three days in FY12 Q3. On-time performance improved by 5.2 percentage points compared to the same period last year, FY11 Q3. It is important to note that the results in FY11 Q3 were based solely on Single-Piece Parcel Post® and Media Mail®/Library Mail mailed over the counter from retail offices, without any commercial Package Services mail included in measurement.

Colorado/Wyoming and Greater Indiana districts had the highest service performance, with 95.8 percent on time, followed by Hawkeye at 95.6 percent on time. Eastern Area achieved the highest performance of the seven areas with an on-time score of 94.1.