Quarterly Performance for Presort First-Class Mail®
Mailpieces Delivered Between 01/01/2013 and 03/31/2013

Overview

For Presort First-Class Mail®, the service performance measurement system of the Postal Service® uses 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 for the population of Presort First-Class Mail® using Full Service Intelligent 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 the 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 Presort First-Class Mail® 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 USPS® 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.

The service performance measures for Single-Piece First-Class Mail® flats (using data from EXFC) serve as proxies for estimating the service performance for Presort First-Class™ flats. The following service performance results combine the results for letter performance calculated by the iMAPS program with the proxy data for flats to measure service performance for all Presort First-Class Mail®.

Presort First-Class™ Parcels were categorized as a competitive product as of October 3, 2011, and are no longer included in the Presort First-Class Mail® scores.

Limitations

Data for FY13 Q2 were limited to mailers passing service performance business rules. Overnight performance data were available for 66 out of 67 possible origin districts, two-day data were available for 64 out of 66 origin districts, and three-to-five-day data were available for 62 out of 67 origin districts. The results may not be representative of mail flowing across the full postal network due to the limited number of mailers and the mailing patterns of mailers participating in Full Service. However, mail was sent to all districts and ZIP Code™ areas during the quarter for at least one service standard group.

Performance Highlights

National Overnight performance in FY13 Quarter 2 was 97.1 percent on time, with 99.5 percent delivered within the service standard plus one day. National Two-Day performance was 96.9 percent on time, with 99.3 percent delivered within the service standard plus one day. National Three-To-Five-Day performance was 94.8 percent on time, with 98.8 percent delivered within the service standard plus one day. Nationally, at least 99.8 percent of mail across all service standards was delivered within the service standard plus three days in FY13 Quarter 2. Western Area led the nation in Overnight service performance while Pacific Area led the nation in Two-Day service performance. Capital Metro Area led the nation in Three-To-Five-Day service performance.

In Quarter 2, at the district level, Sierra Coastal had the highest Overnight service performance at 99.4 percent on time, with 49 districts scoring at or above the performance target of 96.70 percent on time. For Two-Day service, Seattle had the highest performance at 99.0 percent on time, with 61 districts scoring at or above the performance target of 95.10 percent on time. Atlanta had the highest Three-To-Five-Day performance at 97.3 percent on time, with 33 districts scoring at or above the performance target of 95.00 percent on time.