The Postal Service missed nearly $29 million in postage adjustments this spring after a routine software update caused its primary package‑measurement machine to fall off the Automated Package Verification system’s trusted list, according to a new USPS Office of Inspector General report, citing “insufficient monitoring.”
A name change to the Automated Parcel Bundle Sorter in September 2025 was never added to APV’s configuration. As facilities began using the updated identifier in early 2026, APV stopped recognizing APBS as a trusted machine, which caused the system to stop receiving scans from APBS and cut off 62 percent of USPS’s trusted weight data.
Between March and May, APV ignored 30 to 50 million scans per week, leading to an estimated $22.6 million in undetected underpaid postage and $6.1 million in missed overpayment refunds.
More of the same management incompetence that the OIG finds everywhere. It’s just breathtaking what the OIG finds; it’s become so commonplace no one is surprised anymore. Meanwhile, the BOG members sit on their collective butts , saying nothing as hundreds of millions fly out the door and service craters. Steiner and Tulino, the architects of this disaster, need to hit the bricks and hopefully without bonuses.