Better and more visible data on service failures to come

Mar 1, 2023

The U.S. Postal Service will soon be required to provide an online reporting system that will detail service standard achievements and failures for Periodicals and other mail classes (see here).

The new system will report data by district and also provide reasons why specific products did not achieve service standards, as well as the number of mail pieces excluded from measurement.

The new requirement is specified by the Postal Regulatory Commission in response to new legislative mandates that were included in the Postal Service Reform Act of 2022. The National Newspaper Association was among mailers’ groups that advocated for better and more visible data on service failures.

Periodicals mail measurements typically include only about 65% of the mail class because service data is derived from scans when mail pieces travel through USPS sorting machines. Most newspaper mail is not sorted by machine. And for local newspapers, the great majority of mail is dropped at local post offices for delivery within that 5-digit ZIP code.

“Still, this new requirement is going to give us a better glimpse at problems in the overall mailing system,” NNA Chair John Galer, publisher of the Hillsboro (Illinois) Journal–News, said. “Catastrophic failures of the sort we saw in 2020 will be easier to work around with better data. Most importantly, this new system will enable members of Congress to easily understand what is going on in their Congressional districts. Our problems with USPS are far from over, particularly as the current plan is to emphasize package delivery. It is imperative that Congress keep its watchful eye on the nation’s universal mail service.”