stages, and if the FSS approach proves economical, a production contract could be awarded as soon as 2006.

     In addition to the FSS, discussed above, the Postal Service has simultaneously initiated development of DPP. This program would combine letter and flat mail into one package and sort it in the carrier's delivery sequence.

     DPP sequences and merges letter and flat mail into a single bundle or package for each delivery point. This strategy would virtually eliminate the carriers' in-office sorting time, reduce mail handling time during delivery, and allow more street time for the carrier to deliver mail to more addresses.

     DPP requires high-speed mail sorting and packaging equipment able to handle the diverse range of mail characteristics consistently, reliably and accurately. Such a system does not yet exist. New systems and methodologies must be conceived and developed for the DPP. Concept development will continue into 2004. Development of test bed systems could begin as early as 2005. Should DPP technology prove viable and economical, it is likely to supercede FSS development and deployment.

     The Managed Service Points (MSP) program is intended to improve the consistency in the time of day that mail is delivered to customers. The program uses mobile data collection devices to scan barcodes placed strategically along the city carrier's line of travel.

     In 2003, the 95 percent MSP scanning goal was achieved nationwide by 160,000 city routes. Achievement of this 95 percent goal has provided critical data to the delivery unit managers to effectively evaluate consistency of delivery to our customers.

     The MSP program was integrated into the Delivery Operations Information System (DOIS) business solution in September 2003. This will eliminate the existing stand-alone Web based system.

     The Postal Service is developing city carrier routing and travel optimization programs similar to those used by private sector delivery firms. The Carrier Optimal Routing (COR) tool is a computer program that uses algorithms to configure compact, contiguous, safe city carrier routes and uses volumes from route surveys in order to create efficient travel paths for city carriers, while reducing park points and relays. COR has entered the training phase with 250 people scheduled to be trained by the end of January 2004. The national roll out of the program will commence once key trained personnel are in place.

     The Delivery Performance Achievement and Recognition System (DPARS) will be used to recognize performance and track progress towards improvement. DPARS is a delivery operations breakthrough productivity tool that has become an earned workhour system for city and rural carriers. DPARS is based on demonstrated performance of top quartile offices within peer groups of like sized offices, which set the benchmark target. The actual performance compared to the target performance serves to identify opportunities for improvement. The opportunity hours will be used as the basis for allocating local management initiative savings for the next year. Scorecards providing detailed delivery operation performance information as well as opportunities for improvement are published weekly.

     The electronic Publication Watch (ePUBWATCH) system is a complaint tracking and resolution system for Periodicals mail. ePUBWATCH was designed to replace the existing paper-based publication watch system in those delivery units which have computers. Registered publishers can enter a subscriber's Postal Service-related complaint, and request an electronic publication