Challenge
Overlapping layers of governance hamper speed to market and quick decision making.
Solution
Streamline oversight by redefining regulatory roles and processes.
When Congress last modified the Postal Service’s oversight model in 2006, our mail volumes were increasing. However, the recent recession and trends in our current business environment have caused dramatic decreases in mail volumes. Declining mail volumes in the coming decade will require new flexibility as a business and in our oversight model.
Our current oversight structure includes Congress, portions of the Executive Branch, the Government Accountability Office, and the Postal Service Inspector General, as well as by Presidentially-appointed Governors and the Postal Regulatory Commission.
These authorities oversee everything from pricing and products to postal networks and Sarbanes-Oxley Act compliance. However, in this highly constrained environment, it is difficult for the Postal Service to quickly and artfully adapt and respond to the rapidly changing world in which we — and our customers — live.
If stakeholders want the Postal Service to move more rapidly and aggressively, these authorities need to be equally nimble. We must be able to move as quickly to market as our competitors in order to succeed. A more clearly defined and practically workable and streamlined oversight process would enable the Postal Service to bring products to market faster and make business decisions with greater certainty and flexibility, and compete more effectively.
Our future viability is predicated on a holistic view of improvement, including a thoughtful reassessment of oversight roles and processes that support other aspects of the plan. We have taken the critical steps internally of increasing transparency and accountability, since 2006. However, changes in law — such as time limits on reviews and after-the-fact reviews — are also necessary.
We continue to seek these changes and look forward to working with all interested parties to do so. Together, we can ensure a Postal Service that can respond nimbly to challenges and opportunities that come our way, now and in the future.
The Postal Service is working with Congress to establish a more flexible business model to better meet the evolving mailing needs of the American people.
