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Improve Service

Expanding Service Measurement
Several steps have been taken to enhance and expand service measurement. The Postal Service has a number of robust service measurement systems for First-Class Mail, Priority Mail, Express Mail, and Parcel Select. Some systems have been enhanced to provide more comprehensive service measurement. Progress was made toward realizing the goal to measure every mailpiece that enters the system. The integration of data from acceptance systems, the increased use of data-rich intelligent barcodes, and the generation of data from scanning systems across operations marked the first important steps toward total mail visibility.

The Priority Mail service measurement system changed from Priority End-To-End (PETE), a test sample method conducted externally, to an actual piece measurement system that uses customerpurchased Priority Mail Delivery Confirmation. The unique Delivery Confirmation number gives accurate acceptance and delivery dates and times, and reflects the actual customer experience. Using retail Priority Mail with Delivery Confirmation increased the volume of measured Priority Mail from the 450,000 pieces sampled in PETE to more than 23 million pieces annually. Retail Package Services are measured in a similar way.

The Express Mail Reporting System is a virtual census of all Express Mail pieces. It was expanded to include International Express Mail, which helped improve International Express Mail performance.

The External First-Class Measurement System (EXFC) is the end-to-end measuring system for single-piece letters and flats. It is administered by a consulting service and measures service from the time mail enters the mailstream until it is delivered to a household, small business, or Post Office box. Historically EXFC measured domestic mail only. International First-Class Mail will be added in 2007. Based upon experience with International Express Mail, service improvements in International First-Class Mail are expected.

Traditionally, the National Performance Assessment ratings for 2- and 3-day First-Class Mail, Priority Mail, and Express Mail did not include service performance from just before Thanksgiving until the first week of February because of processing capacity and transportation limitations. Given the processing capacity and more reliable transportation now in place, this exclusion period has been significantly reduced for 2007, increasing accountability during the time of the year with the highest mail volumes.

In order to make end-to-end service data more accessible, the Postal Service began posting end-to-end service performance data for First-Class Mail, Priority Mail, Express Mail, and Package Services on usps.com. Notices placed in Post Offices direct customers to usps.com for the service performance data.

Increasingly, mailers and commercial services use CONFIRM in order to have access to detailed performance and diagnostic information on individual mailings. The functionality and use of these data will continue to grow, driven by increased use of intelligent barcodes and upgrades to equipment and scanning. There is now a very real potential to grow into systems that give customers virtually complete information about mail flows and service performance for all types of mail, including mail that cannot currently be measured.

Total Mail Visibility
For more than two decades barcodes have been at the core of major advances in service quality and productivity growth. Automated mail processing — driven by barcodes — allowed the Postal Service to reduce costs at the same time it helped promote more rapid, reliable, and consistent service. Today the vast majority of mail is barcoded, mostly by customers. The remaining codes are applied during processing by automated equipment that "reads" the address and converts it to a code. In either case, the barcode is the "map" that directs mail to its destination.