Travis Grau’s primary responsibilities include cost analysis, computer programming for queries of large databases, productivity measurement and analysis, and general knowledge of U.S. Postal Service data sets. Since joining Christensen Associates in 1996, Travis has provided technical support and analysis to USPS witnesses in the five omnibus rate cases before the U.S. Postal Regulatory Commission. He has also provided technical support and analysis for the Postal Service’s Annual Compliance Reports since 2007. His ongoing duties include assistance in developing and maintaining methods used to assign USPS labor costs to appropriate postal operations and developing statistical analyses of these costs using a bootstrap methodology to mimic postal stratification and sampling techniques. Travis also assists in generating the monthly, quarterly, and annual measurements of Total Factor Productivity for the Postal Service.
Finally, Travis contributes to the monthly, quarterly, and annual production of the Postal Service’s Revenue, Pieces, and Weight (RPW) reports. Specifically, he collects and analyses data from a variety of USPS data sources that feed these reports. He employs several programming languages for his work, including Stata, SAS, SQL, Fortran, and TSP.
Case Study: Vehicle Registration Compliance for the Wisconsin Department of Transportation
February 12, 2015 - The Wisconsin Department of Transportation hired Christensen Associates to conduct a study to estimate the number of automobiles and light trucks on the roads without current registrations, and determine the reasons for non-compliance.
January 09, 2011 - Christensen Associates investigated areas of potential cost savings for a hypothetical one-day relaxation of service standards—defined as the number of days from entry of the mail into the postal system until delivery. We identified approximately $2.5 billion in costs for FY 2010 that are partly or wholly related to service standards. However, because of the interrelation of functions, not all of these costs are available as potential cost savings from extending service standards by one day.
