Montana Post Offices again ZIP to highest score - 98% - in First-Class local on-time mail service; goal is 100%

BILLINGS, MT— For the second straight quarter, Montana Post Offices have once again tied the national record for the highest quarterly service score ever — 98 percent — in local on-time First-Class Mail delivery.

IBM Global Business Surveys conducts the quarterly audits of First Class mail on-time delivery performance, called EXFC. IBM has anonymous mailers who drop unidentifiable First-Class mail pieces of all sizes and shapes into the mail system daily. IBM audits the delivery results of those mail pieces covering particular ZIP Codes. The process measures First-Class Mail from the time it is deposited into a local collection box until it is delivered to its destination.

The score essentially means that 98 out of every 100 First-Class Mail pieces mailed within that overnight ZIP Code metropolitan area are processed and delivered the next day. Montana Post Offices’ 98 percent on-time score tied with five other postal districts out of 80 postal geographic districts nationwide for the highest score.

On-time mail service was audited during the second quarter period covering January 1 to March 31, 2008. It was an unprecedented 19th different quarter that Montana Post Offices have achieved or tied for the highest score in the U.S. The national average was 96 percent.

“Montana continues to set impressive records for consistent quality mail service. Our postal employees and Montana residents can be very proud,” says John DiPeri, Big Sky District Manager in charge of all Montana Post Offices. “Our goal is to be the first postal district in the nation to achieve a perfect 100 percent quarterly on-time score for local First-Class mail delivery as verified by IBM. I believe our outstanding Montana postal employees can do that or be the first to hit 99 percent. I thank them and our Montana postal customers for their great support.”

Montana has 324 Post Offices and 2,200 postal employees. They process and deliver an average 2.3 million pieces of mail per day to more than 550,000 Montana addresses and to a delivery area of over 147,000 square miles – the fourth largest state in the U.S.

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An independent federal agency, the U.S. Postal Service is the only delivery service that visits every address in the nation — 146 million homes and businesses. It has 37,000 retail locations and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to pay for operating expenses, not tax dollars. The Postal Service has annual revenues of $75 billion and delivers nearly half the world’s mail.