The U.S. Postal Service is spending $10 million more annually than it needs to on delivery vehicle gasoline and labor costs, according to USPS inspector general Karla Corcoran.
“The Postal Service has yet to fully implement recommendations made in the Inspection Service’s previous bulk fuel report in July 2001,” Corcoran said in a statement.
The Inspection Service’s audit found that the USPS didn’t take full advantage of gas discounts from fuel suppliers, nor did it recoup roughly $4 million in state fuel taxes. In fiscal 2001, according to the audit, the USPS bought 80 million gallons of fuel at retail and 11 million gallons at bulk discounts, paying $18 million more in fuel than it had the previous year.
Meanwhile, the southeast region of the USPS failed to reduce its budget by $6 million to reflect anticipated labor savings resulting from the outsourcing of fuel delivery, “since carriers were no longer working the time previously needed to fuel the vehicles,” Corcoran said.