Our suppliers help us be successful in our mission of serving the American public. They provide equipment, materials and services that enable us to deliver superior products and services to our customers. Overseeing these relationships is our Supply Management organization, which supports key Postal Service programs by providing timely and lean solutions with its supply-chain partners. In FY2016, Supply Management supported many strategic initiatives including Network Optimization and World Class Package Platform activities.
As Supply Management works with our business partners to increase the efficiency of moving the mail, we’re equally focused on reducing the possibility of damaged and lost mail and improving the processes around handling such items. This effort, called Project ICE (Improve Customer Experience), includes multi-organizational project teams that work to identify and correct root causes for damaged and undeliverable mail.
In addition to our commitment to serving the American public, we’re also committed to implementing sustainable solutions. The Postal Service and its highway contract suppliers continue to increase the number of tractor-trailers that run on alternative fuels, which is part of the organization’s broader efforts to become more sustainable. In FY2015, Postal Service suppliers used 72 tractor-trailers that run on natural gas — up from 39 such vehicles one year earlier. In fiscal 2016, we converted an additional 106 contract tractor-trailers to alternative fuels, bringing the total number of alternative fuel vehicles to 178. These increases more than doubled the number of annual miles operated by natural gas vehicles to 13.5 million miles.
Finally, while the United States accounts for 45 percent of the global market in cross-border shopping, our offerings are limited. Supply Management and Global Business are working together to bring the Global e-commerce Marketplace on line, positioning the Postal Service to become more competitive in providing these services.
Supplier Diversity – As an essential part of our procurement strategy, supplier diversity continues to strengthen the Postal Service’s competitiveness in the marketplace. Supplier diversity is embedded into the routine principles and practices that govern the procurement process. This helps ensure all suppliers have access to this process and an opportunity to provide value-added products and services the Postal Service needs to maintain and increase customer satisfaction and decrease overall costs. In FY2016, our contract commitments exceeded $2.9 billion with small businesses, $379 million with minority businesses and $651 million with women-owned businesses.
During the year, the Supplier Diversity group reached over 25,000 potential suppliers by participating in congressional, federal and industry events and conferences focused on supplier diversity and development across the nation. Participation included promoting supplier registration, delivering workshops, conducting one-on-one business meetings and providing key information on doing business with the Postal Service.
Supplier Diversity maintains memberships with premier multicultural business and trade associations, such as the National Minority Supplier Development Council, Women’s Business Enterprise National Council, U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, U.S. Pan Asian American Chamber of Commerce and the National Congress of American Indians with a combined total of over 40,000 members. It also supports National Veterans Small Business Engagement activities and the Small Business Administration and is a member of the Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization.
Recently, our work has been recognized by leading publications and organizations including FederalNewsRadio.com, DiversityPlus magazine and DiversityBusiness.com, which named the Postal Service the country’s top government agency for multicultural business opportunities. In addition, the Supplier Diversity program has been recognized by The Presidents’ Roundtable and the PRT Reach Foundation and the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce for its significant contributions to supplier diversity and as a supporter of the Hispanic community.
