Based on a brand new inspector normal report, the USA Postal Service (USPS) is having bother protecting its property protected.
The USPS has over 235,000 automobiles. Greater than 140,000 of them are Lengthy Life Automobiles (LLVs), these boxy vans with a sliding facet door and the steering wheel on the fitting. The USPS final bought LLVs in 1994, and regardless of their title, the vans have been solely anticipated to final 24 years, which means each ought to have been retired by 2018 on the newest.
In December 2022, the company introduced that it might change its mail vans with a fleet of electrical automobiles (E.V.s). The USPS would spend $9.6 billion—together with $3 billion apportioned by Congress as a part of the Inflation Discount Act—on new vans in addition to the chargers to service them.
A report by the USPS Officer of the Inspector Basic launched final week discovered that officers on the Materials Distribution Heart (MDC) in Kansas, the USPS facility the place prototype chargers have been being saved and examined, “did not employ necessary physical safety measures designed to protect and deter the theft of Postal Service assets.” Lots of the specifics are redacted, however in March 2023, inspectors say, “MDC officials discovered that Postal Service information technology assets were stolen” from one facility. In March and April, officers “replac[ed] locks and eight exterior doors” however didn’t implement the entire safety measures that postal inspectors advisable after the break-in.
“Despite the theft,” the report continued, “and without implementing crucial remediation measures identified in the Inspection Service assessment, the Postal Service began storing charging stations in [redacted] when the first 2,000 units arrived in April 2023.” The next month, the identical facility “was again burglarized, resulting in additional losses to the Postal Service, including the theft of charging station heads…and other information technology assets, such as monitors, printers, and docking stations.”
Because of “insufficient safeguards,” the report decided that “the Postal Service incurred two thefts and losses of approximately $59,700 in information technology assets (e.g., computer monitors, printers, and docking stations) and $7,700 from two charging station heads.”
After the second housebreaking, MDC officers once more changed locks and contracted with off-duty legislation enforcement officers to patrol the realm. Even so, “these measures still do not ensure” that the ability “is in compliance with Postal Service policy requiring physical safeguards or limiting unauthorized access to Postal Service assets.”
The report famous that USPS coverage would have required the MDC to implement a sequence of additional safety measures, together with putting in safety cameras and an “intrusion detection system.”
As if that wasn’t unhealthy sufficient, a footnote talked about that “Postal Service officials at the MDC were aware of general security related issues occurring as recently as four years ago in the same industrial park, which resulted in the loss of thousands of dollars’ worth of tools and equipment suffered by prior tenants.” Nonetheless, “despite several security-related incidents, MDC officials did not view” the ability “as an at-risk, administrative facility that necessitated urgent mitigating actions.”
The USPS has struggled lately. Even earlier than the COVID-19 pandemic, it skilled constant declines in income even because it sat on tens of billions of {dollars} in unfunded pension liabilities. The USPS supply system is optimized for paper mail over packages, although the appearance of e-commerce implies that extra persons are ordering packages and fewer are sending and receiving letters. Given such a protracted report of subpar efficiency, it ought to come as no shock that the USPS failed to take action a lot as even set up a safety digital camera to guard its personal property.