The United States Postal Service receives no tax dollars from the federal government for their operations. They are a self-supporting agency, using the revenue from the sales of postage and postage-related products to pay expenses. Each year the postal service delivers 212 billion pieces of mail to over 144 million homes, businesses and Post Office boxes in virtually every state, city and town in the country, including Puerto Rico, Guam, the American Virgin Islands and American Samoa. Delivering this much mail, requires managing almost 800,000 employees and contractors, 38,000 facilities and 214,000 vehicles.
Managing 214,000 vehicles to deliver an abundance of mail, it is no wonder that accidents happen but many can be avoided. According to www.usps.com, in 2005, the Postal Service incurred $49 million for traffic accidents and in 2006 reported 100,000 motor vehicle accidents. How can the United States Postal Service reduce the annual number of motor vehicle accidents thus saving money?
The three options to address the issue of reducing the amount of motor vehicle accidents per year are as illustrated below. One option is to offer an accident-free incentive plan to drivers. Regardless of fault, if a driver remains accident-free during the course of a year, they will receive a bonus. The bonus amount will fluxuate each year depending on the dollar amount saved on accident reductions that year. So for example, if the Postal Service saves $10 million in 2007, the bonus amount would be a certain percentage of the $10 million. Another option is to offer annual driver training. Each year, drivers would have to attend a drivers training in-service in order to continue driving a motor vehicle for the Postal Service. The in-service would be a hands-on training session where the drivers would need to pass a road course. Lastly, the Postal Service can execute a more stringent driving record policy. Upon hire, the candidate