Over the coming months, the Postal Service will complete implementation of its Regional Transportation Optimization (RTO) initiative. The cost savings remain unclear, but the impacts on the country are coming into focus. It’s not a pretty picture.
Under the RTO, mail and packages are no longer collected at post offices at the end of the business day for dispatch to a processing center. Instead, everything is held overnight in the back of the post office and picked up the following morning when the day’s mail is dropped off.
According to USPS filings before the Postal Regulatory Commission, the Postal Service estimates that eliminating the evening collection and combining two trips into one will reduce highway transportation mileage, burn less fuel, and curb underutilized truck capacity. The Postal Service says the annual cost savings for RTO will eventually be approximately $650 million.
It’s not clear, however, how much the RTO is actually saving. In its annual compliance determination report, the PRC expressed concern over the lack of cost-savings tracking for the RTO initiative (as also noted in an OIG Report).
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