U.S. Postal Service Ramps Up R&D Of New Technologies

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Postal Service is meeting its performance challenges head on with a $51 million contract with Serco Inc., Vienna, Va., for engineering support services, including support for research and development of new technologies. The contract also provides for technical, project management and IT services, as well as quality assurance consulting work and testing and evaluation of future mail-processing equipment.

According to Walter O’Tormey, vice president, Engineering, the contract represents the Postal Service’s efforts to continually enhance and develop technologies that improve operational efficiencies and customer service and drive down costs.

“Being at the cutting-edge in mail-processing technology has enabled the Postal Service to greatly improve productivity and customer service in the past, and it will continue to do so in the future,” said O’Tormey. “The acquisition of these technical support services will help us do just that.”

The two-year base contract has four two-year options, bringing the potential contract value to $260 million over 10 years.




An independent federal agency, the U.S. Postal Service is the only delivery service that visits 146 million homes and businesses, six days a week. It has 37,000 retail locations and relies on the sale of postage, products, and services to cover its operating expenses. The Postal Service has annual revenues of $73 billion and delivers nearly half the world’s mail.