Deliveries per Hour

FY2016 Performance Report – In FY2016, the target for DPH was an increase of 1.2 percent over the actual result. The actual result was an increase of 0.1 percent, a difference of 1.1 percent. We did not achieve the stretch target due to a growth in work hours, but we did have an increase over SPLY. Factors driving work hour growth include a delay in plant consolidations, not capturing all of Network Rationalization phase 2 savings, utilization of additional work hours to improve service and additional hours from hiring, training and turnover rates for the non-career workforce. Our non-career workforce provides much needed flexibility and reduces salary and benefit costs based on lower wage rates. However, the additional work hour usage has a negative impact on the DPH metric.

The Postal Service calculates the incremental workload impact that is due to the workload content of packages increasing, and letters and flats decreasing. Packages grew strongly in FY2016, and the workload content of packages is significantly higher than that of letters and flats which are decreasing. This net weighted volume impact is a sizable increase in work hours in FY2016. These additional hours are earned from volume and are now accounted for within the DPH equation by removing them from the denominator to compare years strictly on a productivity basis.

FY2017 Performance Plan – Achievement of the FY2017 DPH target is based on capturing work hour reductions from operational initiatives. The Postal Service does not intend to make any modifications in the methods used to forecast delivery points for the 2017 DPH target. (See U.S. Postal Service FY2016 Results and FY2017 Targets for Corporate-wide Goals for FY2017 target.)