SPOKANE, WA - Postal Service customers in the Spokane District, which covers Eastern Washington and the state of Idaho, received some of the best overnight mail delivery service in the nation for the third quarter of fiscal year 2007. With 97 percent on-time delivery of First-Class Mail, the Spokane District tied a number of other postal districts for the nation's highest delivery performance.

"We are pleased to lead the nation in overnight delivery service for the second straight quarter," said Spokane District Manager Lloyd Wilkinson. "This is the level of service our customers deserve and have come to expect, and it's the level of service our outstanding postal employees are happy to provide."

The Spokane District employs more than 5,000 people, working in nearly 400 postal facilities, who process and deliver an average 4.7 million pieces of mail each day to more than 1 million addresses.

National on-time performance scores for the delivery of First-Class Mail were at all-time highs for all three of the categories the Postal Service tracks. Overnight service was 96 percent on-time, up from 95 percent the same period last year. Two-day service was 93 percent on-time, and three-day service was 91 percent on-time.

First-Class Mail performance, presented last week during the Postal Service Board of Governors meeting, is measured independently by IBM Global Business Services. The process measures First-Class Mail from the time it is deposited into a collection box or lobby mail chute until it is delivered to a home or business.

During the same period, national residential customer satisfaction was at 92 percent, as measured by the Gallup Organization. At 94 percent, Spokane District residential customer satisfaction was two points higher than the national average.

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An independent federal agency, the U.S. Postal Service is the only delivery service that visits every address in the nation, 146 million homes and businesses, six days a week. It has 37,000 retail locations and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to pay for operating expenses, not tax dollars. The Postal Service has annual revenues of $73 billion and delivers nearly half the world's mail.