USPS trucking safety audit reveals lack of procedures and screenings for driver safety

The U.S. Postal Service has operated its trucking contracts with a significant lack of safety measures or reporting, according to preliminary results from an audit of USPS contract trucking safety.

“One of essentially the largest freight contractors in the country, doing their work with taxpayer dollars, has been doing so to the lowest possible standard, putting Americans at risk every day,” Zach Cahalan, executive director of the Truck Safety Coalition, told FleetOwner.

The audit, performed by the USPS Office of Inspector General, sought to measure the effectiveness of contract trucking safety controls, compliance, and oversight.

The audit’s report, published Feb. 27, uncovered a concerning lack of procedures and screenings for driver safety. Among other issues, the report found that USPS did not have any centralized process to track fatal truck crashes by its contracted drivers.

According to the report, inspectors found USPS had only limited access to contractors’ safety performance data and did not have enough screenings for drivers. “Continued use of the current freight auction driver vetting processes could compromise the safety and security of mail and other motorists,” the report stated.

About USPS and trucking

Trucking is an essential part of USPS’s operations, and the postal office is a significant freight contractor nationwide. OIG found that, in 2023, USPS had $5.2 billion in associated costs for roughly 4,600 trucking contracts.

USPS manages two types of trucking contracts: highway contract routes (HCR) contracts, which establish standard freight pricing for reoccurring routes; and freight auction contracts, which establish flexible, short-term freight capacity when HCR contractors cannot fulfill a route.

HCR contracts are more subject to regulations and organizational oversight, while freight auction contracts have fewer requirements. For example, HCR contractors need prior written approval from USPS to employ subcontractors, while freight auction contractors do not need any prior authorization to use subcontractors.

USPS began using freight auction contracts in 2022 to better adjust operations during emergency situations. By the end of 2023, its use increased dramatically.

USPS began using the freight auction process in 2022 to expedite operations in emergency situations. The use exploded after its implementation: in 2022, the OIG found 53,433 freight auction trips; in 2023, it found 187,573 trips—a 350% increase.

This more lax freight auction process, paired with its explosion in popularity, became a security concern for the audit.

“Postal Service management appear to be adopting private sector practices, which relies solely upon the brokers and suppliers to manage their subcontracting relationships,” stated the report. “However, this approach results in risks such as a lack of visibility into subcontractor use and potentially unqualified drivers transporting mail, compromising the security of mail and the safety of motorists.”

The audit’s findings

The audit found “significant internal control deficiencies” in USPS’s safety controls, contract compliance, and oversight.

OIG’s report identified three main problems:

1. USPS did not track contractor accidents and fatalities

The Postal Service could not provide information on the frequency, location, time, or involved parties related to trucking contractor accidents.

Even though the Postal Service required administrative officials to report accident information to the Postal Inspection Service, there was no centralized system to collect this information.

2. USPS did not develop appropriate safety requirements or enforcement in its ordering agreements

Second, the report claims the Postal Service’s ordering agreements had two key deficiencies.

A lack of subcontractor visibility meant that USPS did not always know who was authorized to transport the mail. OIG reported that 14 of the 15 contracting officers and administrative officials it had interviewed (93%) did not know when an HCR contract utilized a subcontractor. Six of the seven contracting officers interviewed—officials with the sole authority to award, amend, or terminate highway trucking contracts—were unaware of the HCR subcontracting approval requirement.

Also, USPS did not consistently enforce team driver requirements for its freight auction carriers. The Postal Service’s freight auction service ordering agreements required team drivers for trips exceeding 500 miles, but OIG found trips exceeding this length that were simply not staffed with team drivers.

3. USPS’s screening processes were lacking

The Postal Service had a significant portion of its trucking contract drivers moving mail without proper vetting.

Almost 30% of HCR drivers did not have appropriate security clearance, even though USPS policy requires all HCR drivers to have security clearances. In addition, USPS’s use of freight auctions increased dramatically (over 350%) from 2022 to 2023, further lowering the Postal Service’s visibility into driver records.

Screenings for drivers did not always include a trucker’s driving history, either. The freight auction process, designed to accommodate emergencies, has fewer regulatory screening requirements than the HCR process. However, with the explosion in freight auction usage in 2023, USPS was using a significant number of drivers without disclosing the drivers’ history.

However, the audit found even less screening in this expedited freight auction process.

“We also found that Postal Service personnel did not always complete this alternative process, and instead allowed drivers to only present a driver’s license to access the facility and transport mail,” the report stated.

The report’s recommendations

OIG’s report includes recommendations for each of the three identified problems. The report’s recommendations call upon USPS’s VP of transportation strategy to implement appropriate changes—from finalizing accident tracking methodology to requiring freight auction subcontracting authorization.

“Overall, without clarifying subcontractor pre-authorization guidance, establishing requirements to track subcontractors used by contractors, and enforcing the team driver requirement, the Postal Service is at risk for safety visibility and performance issues,” the audit report said. “Specifically, these deficiencies could allow subcontractors with safety violations to transport mail.”

Background of the audit

The Office of Inspector General ensures the accountability and transparency of USPS postal operations.

In March 2023, Congress requested the USPS Office of Inspector General investigate its policies on the selection, monitoring, and oversight of its truck freight shipment contractors and subcontractors.

“As an oversight agency of the Postal Service, the findings that derive from our work are important in supporting postal operations, while also ensuring accountability and transparency in the Postal Service,” Allyson Conroy, communications specialist for the USPS OIG, told FleetOwner.

The USPS OIG performed its audit using highway trucking contract data from October 2018 to December 2022. OIG conducted its audit from March 2023 through February 2024.

How people responded to the report

The findings of OIG’s audit were shocking to many.

“This can’t be the way one of the largest freight contractors, responsible to the American people, have been operating for God knows how long. It’s frightening,” Cahalan said

The Truck Safety Coalition applauded the report’s findings in an official statement.

One of the audit’s most significant findings was that the USPS did not require tracking trucking contractor accidents and fatalities.

“The title of this report could be, “Out of Sight, Out of Mind,’” Congressman Gerry Connolly (D-VA) said in a press release on the report. “The Postal Service does not have a single written policy requiring the tracking of fatal accidents involving its contractors. We are talking about lives that have been lost.”

On March 5, Connolly introduced a new bill to Congress, the Mail Traffic Deaths Reporting Act. The bill would require employees to report any traffic accidents that led to injury or death within three days of the crash.

The report also included responses from management within the USPS. This management, referred to broadly as personnel ranked as ‘manager’ or above in various USPS departments, disagreed with the audit’s findings on screening processes and disagreed with several of OIG’s recommendations.

According to OIG’s report, “management stated they have a process to properly vet HCR drivers and will continue to train personnel on the HCR screening process.”

Although USPS management agreed with the audit’s findings regarding untracked accidents and undeveloped safety requirements, management argued that the screening process was primarily focused on a driver’s criminal record—not their safety or competence—because USPS generally relies on the suppliers and subcontractors to hire safe drivers.

Cahalan of the Truck Safety Coalition found this disagreement concerning.

“My experience in government contracting, even if you are going to use the broker, is you are the one that sets the terms; you set the requirements,” Cahalan told FleetOwner. “The idea that either [USPS] themselves—or through the brokers that they’re utilizing who then have to follow the standards they set—are not requiring this of their primes or subs, and/or to even care to tell their primes to notify them that they’re using subs... It shows a complete lack of interest in ensuring the public safety.”

The report stated that OIG will use an audit resolution process to help resolve disagreements between OIG and management.

“We have a resolution process that we work through with the Postal Service for resolving these types of issues,” Allyson Conroy, communications specialist for the USPS OIG, told FleetOwner. “Any recommendations the Postal Service does not act on remain open and are reported to Congress until a resolution is achieved.”