Postal Service: Mail Delivery Service in the Washington Metropolitan Area
(Testimony, 02/28/95, GAO/T-GGD-95-94).

Since 1990, mail service in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area has
been among the worst in the nation, and customer satisfaction has
generally been below the national average.  Both mail service and
customer satisfaction in the D.C. area declined dramatically in 1994.
Postal Service officials attribute the deterioration in service to an
unexpected growth in mail volume in early 1994.  Local units were unable
to handle this growth due to employee shortages, recent organizational
change, mail-handling process problems, and poor labor-management
relations. The Postal Service has made progress toward restoring service
to 1993 levels, but breakthrough improvement will require postal
management and labor unions to work together to resolve long-standing
employee relations problems that are reported to be more severe in the
D.C. area than in most other locations.

--------------------------- Indexing Terms -----------------------------

 REPORTNUM:  T-GGD-95-94
     TITLE:  Postal Service: Mail Delivery Service in the Washington 
             Metropolitan Area
      DATE:  02/28/95
   SUBJECT:  Postal facilities
             Postal service
             Postal service employees
             Personnel management
             Labor-management relations
             Mail delivery problems
             Government employee unions
             Productivity
             Reductions in force
             Mail transportation operations
IDENTIFIER:  USPS External First-Class Measurement System
             USPS Customer Satisfaction Index
             USPS Remote Bar Coding System
             USPS Employee Opinion Survey
             District of Columbia
             
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