Travis Grau’s primary responsibilities include cost analysis, computer programming for queries of large databases, survey data collection, 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 Postal Service 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 for the years 2007 through 2013. His ongoing duties include assistance in developing and maintaining methods used to assign the Postal Service’s labor costs to appropriate postal operations, developing statistical analyses of these costs using a bootstrap methodology to mimic postal stratification and sampling techniques, and the development and implementation of surveys designed to measure specific characteristics of various types of mail. Recently, Travis has helped in generating the monthly, quarterly, and annual measurements of Total Factor Productivity for the Postal Service. He employs several programming languages for his work, including Fortran, TSP, Stata, and SAS.
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.
