Community Connections
Delores Killette
Vice President,
Consumer Advocate
What’s New
- Introduced a new system to help capture information and insights about how we can continuously improve our customers’ experience.
- Joined the International Post Corporation in setting joint emission reduction targets.
- Collected 73.4 million pounds of food during the national NALC food drive.
Customer experience measurement
The new Customer Experience Measurement (CEM) system, which replaces the Customer Satisfaction Measurement (CSM) program, in use since 1991, offers new insights into how to better serve our customers.
The new CEM survey moves away from the mail delivery process and focuses instead on the experience customers have with us.
CEM will improve the Postal Service’s understanding of customers’ perspective of our service, allowing us to improve it. Measuring customers’ experience across all contact points will help us build stronger relationships and become a more customer-focused organization.
Facts and Figures
48
thousand
employees and family members are registered bone marrow donors
73.4
million
pounds of food donations collected by the National Association of Letter Carriers for the annual food drive
149
children
safely recovered as result of “Have You Seen Me?” program
Global partnerships
The International Post Corporation (IPC) announced its first global services industry target and released the mailing industry’s first sustainability report in 2009. The Postal Service is one of 20 post operators that took part in the report to set a joint emissions reduction target.
USPS also is engaged in the IPC’s environmental measurement and monitoring system that gauges the posts’ carbon efficiency and other activities.
USPS also has contributed to the Universal Postal Union’s greenhouse gas global overview and mitigation project. It is establishing a methodology specific to the postal sector for measuring greenhouse gas emissions resulting from postal activities.
USPS also works with its postal partners on initiatives that are beneficial for the environment.
Mail recovery program
The Postal Service operates a mail recovery center in Atlanta, GA, that is responsible for handling undeliverable-as-addressed and non-returnable First-Class Mail and packages.
In FY 2009, the center processed more than 19 million pounds of mail — approximately 6.3 million parcels and 75.1 million letters.
Last year the center returned or forwarded 57 percent of mail identified as having possible value to our customers. In addition, 40 percent of the remaining undeliverable mail was recycled. The remaining 3 percent was sent for disposal.
The Consumer Affairs and mail recovery staffs are currently examining other disposal methods to increase recycling revenue and reduce waste disposal costs.
They are working with Sustainability to explore new ways to dispose of items that previously would have gone to landfills.
They also are partnering with our Environmental group to establish a backhaul program that will more than double the amount of recycling at the facility. Backhauling fills available transportation space with recycling material.
USPS has donated more than 50,000 pounds of undeliverable mail — merchandise samples, used clothing, toys, pots and pans, and other household items — to more than 40 nonprofit organizations.
Marrow donor program
Since 1997, the Postal Service has collaborated with the Be the Match Foundation to build awareness of the national marrow donor program. It is the world’s largest and most diverse registry of potential marrow donors.
Through our Delivering the Gift of Life campaign, more than 48,000 employees and family members have become registered donors during the last 12 years. Of these, 80 have been matched with patients and donated marrow.
This year, the Be the Match Foundation honored the Postal Service with its first Rod Carew award for leadership.
The award is named for Baseball Hall-of-Fame member Rod Carew, whose daughter was a victim of leukemia. It recognized the Postal Service and its employees for their efforts to stem leukemia and other life-threatening blood diseases.
Postal Employees Relief Fund
The Postal Employees Relief Fund is a humanitarian effort administered jointly by the Postal Service and our unions and management associations.
The relief fund is supported financially by employees, mainly through payroll deductions from the Combined Federal Campaign.
The fund gave more than $1.1 million to 207 employees throughout the country in 2009 who experienced damage from house fires and property loss resulting from floods, hurricanes or tornadoes.
Since it began in 1990, the fund has provided more than 3,000 grants totaling nearly $15 million to active and retired employees.
“Have You Seen Me?” program
Another way USPS helps communities is through the “Have You Seen Me?” program.
Since 1985, we have partnered with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and Valassis to reunite families with missing children through “America’s Looking for Its Missing Children” program.
It is recognized as one of the nation’s most effective public service initiatives.
As a direct result of leads generated by the program, 149 children have been safely recovered. Additional information is available at missingkids.com.
National Association of Letter Carriers annual food drive
On May 9, 2009, thousands of carriers and other employees in more than 10,000 cities and towns collected, processed and delivered nonperishable food donated by customers to millions of hungry people.
More than 130 million postcards were mailed to publicize the event — the world’s largest annual one-day food drive.
The National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) annual drive collected 73.4 million pounds of food donations, which will help 35.5 million people, including 12 million children, who face hunger every day.
In its 17th year, the drive has provided nearly 1 billion pounds of food to local communities.
Other supporters include Campbell Soup Co., Valpak Direct Marketing Systems, Valassis, Feeding America, United Way of America and the AFL-CIO.
Cartoonist Bill Keane provides special Family Circus artwork for the promotion.
Waste Busters
The Anaheim, CA, processing and distribution facility is working to close in on sending virtually nothing to landfills. So far, the facility is recycling about 67 percent of its waste — well on the way to the Postal Service’s goal of 100 percent.
The Anaheim P&DF has made significant strides toward making recycling convenient. Places to deposit recycling are plentiful. And the list of items Anaheim reuses, recycles or sends out for reclamation includes more than just paper, plastic bottles and aluminum cans. Thanks to employees, undeliverable bulk business mail, cardboard, plastic trays and sleeves, shrinkwrap, strapping, plastic and metal machine parts, rubber belts, computer components, batteries, light bulbs, fluorescent tubing, ink, oil, paint, toner cartridges, mercury switches and Bubble Wrap rarely see the front gate of a landfill.
The program is paying off. In addition to the revenue earned yearly from recyclers, trash-hauling costs have plummeted — down nearly $40,000 from last year.
