Assessment of the U.S. Postal Service’s Service Performance and Costs

Costs for the Postal Service to process, transport, and deliver mail are outpacing its revenue and it faces considerable pressure to reduce costs without harming service. We set out to determine how service performance has trended for all mail classes and compared that performance to cost trends over the last five years. We analyzed service performance for Priority, First-Class, Periodicals, Marketing, and Package Services mail classes as they comprise all mail products the Postal Service offers. We also analyzed costs to process, transport, and deliver mail.