Highway Contract Routes – Extra Trips in the Mid-Carolinas District

We selected to audit the Mid-Carolinas District because it had the second highest extra service costs for fiscal year (FY) 2017 of $6.5 million with a total number of over 12,400 recorded extra trips. We reviewed a statistical sample of 190 PS Form 5429 (e5429), Certification of Exceptional Contract Service Performed representing 84 HCR routes and over 3,900 extra HCR trips in FY 2017. We also conducted site visits or interviews to review the extra trips process at the Processing and Distribution Centers (P&DCs) in Asheville, Charlotte, and Fayetteville, NC, and Greenville, SC. Our objective was to assess the effectiveness of the Postal Service’s extra trip process for Highway Contract Routes (HCRs) in the Mid-Carolinas District.