Press Releases

Congressman Gerry Connolly (D-VA), the Ranking Member of the House Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Information Technology, and Government Innovation, released the following statement in response to the U.S. Postal Service Inspector General's report on mail contract trucking safety and compliance. Connolly is a recipient of the 2023 Truck Safety Champion Award from the Truck Safety Coalition for his oversight work related to mail contract trucking practices.

"In response to my March 2023 request for an Inspector General audit, today, the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) for the United States Postal Service (USPS) released a stunning report on mail contract trucking safety and compliance. The title of this report could be, “Out of Sight, Out of Mind.” 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. I have met with the victims of these trucking accidents. They want to be seen. The report confirmed several of our worst fears about contract trucking practices at the United States Postal Service. The report calls out for legislative action, and we are going to answer that call with the Mail Traffic Deaths Reporting Act. We are going to fix this. We are going to make sure that these victims and their families are seen.

First and foremost, the report found the Postal Service does not have a single written policy requiring the tracking of trucking contractor accidents and fatalities, and it was not until my March 2023 request for an OIG audit that the Postal Service started to require such accidents be reported to the Vice President for Transportation Strategy. Next week, I will introduce my original legislation, the Mail Traffic Deaths Reporting Act, which will require the Postal Service to track accidents that result in serious injuries or fatalities and fully implement the relevant recommendation of the OIG.

The OIG report also raises serious concerns about the Postal Service’s lack a visibility and vetting of subcontractors who are handling and shipping the mail. 93% of the contracting officers interviewed by the OIG did not know when their contractors were utilizing a subcontractor to ship the mail despite the fact that “using subcontractors without the prior written approval of the [contracting officer] is a major irregularity for which the contractor may be terminated without notice or warning.” As the OIG stated in the report, “these deficiencies could allow subcontractors with safety violations to transport mail,” which remains our top concern.

The one bright spot in this report is that, coinciding with my March 2023 request, the OIG found that, “Beginning in March 2023, the Postal Service began placing a greater emphasis on the contractor’s safety.”

In that spirit, I hope the USPS will drop its resistance to many of the OIG’s recommendations and work collaboratively to improve USPS contract tracking safety practices."

The full OIG report is available here.