Misrouted Mail Within the U.S. Postal Service Network

Service standards are the Postal Service’s stated delivery performance goals for each mail class measured in days from point of entry into the mailstream to final destination. These standards are one of the primary operational goals or benchmarks against which the Postal Service measures its performance. The Postal Service defines misrouted or missent mail as mail sent from an originating facility to the wrong destinating facility. For example, mail originating in Albany, NY, that is addressed to Tampa, FL, but is received in San Francisco, CA. Our objective was to determine why there is misrouted mail and its impact on the Postal Service.