The plan for addressing long-standing issues with flat-shaped mail that was submitted by the Postal Service is lacking in details and analysis, according to the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC). Congress directed the PRC to conduct a Flats Operations Study Report, which led the PRC, in turn, to direct the Postal Service develop and implement a plan to remedy each inefficiency identified in the Commission’s flats report or provide an explanation why remedying such inefficiency is not practical. What the Postal Service developed, however, “lacks both important details and analytical support needed to evaluate the plan and determine whether it sufficiently and effectively addresses the inefficiencies identified by the Commission and described in the Flats Operations Study Report,” the PRC concluded. The Postal Service’s work does not provide any quantifiable metrics for costs and benefits of the initiatives it describes in its Flat Plan. The Commission also found that the Postal Service offers no clear timeline for implementing initiatives and, while some initiatives appear to have been implemented as early as fiscal year (FY) 2021, there is no timeline for when quantifiable impacts of these initiatives will be available.
-PostCom Bulletin
