Even though times have changed significantly in the past couple of decades with technology, postal services are still important and are widely used throughout the world. While it may not be used as a way of getting information to people across the county anymore, it is still heavily used to transmit tangible objects to many destinations all around the world.

In the United States, there are private and public services that are used. The government has their own service called the United States Postal Service and is shortened to the USPS.

The United States Constitution has only authorized a few government agencies and the USPS is one of them. Back in 1775, Benjamin Franklin established the first USPS institution.

By 1840, American businesses had picked up and expanded. Transportation had advanced rapidly at this point yet, the postal rates had stayed the same.

Because the USPS did not change with the times, other private letter companies came forward and started competing. The USPS eventually shut down Lysander Spooner’s American Letter Mail Company and reorganized itself into an independent organization.

Since the early 1980’s, the USPS has become self sufficient and has not gotten any tax payer money to run their agency. They do, however, receive minor subsidies for the costs that it has when mailing stuff to disabled and overseas voters.

But like many problems in our country, they are still in debt and are currently borrowing money from the US treasury to pay its debts. They have slowly been losing money every year due to things like the internet and email.

These things are a lot less expensive, if not free, and people are turning to these methods of communication instead of direct mail. Because the number of people using the postal system has decreased, the USPS has had to come up with other ways of earning money and cutting costs so that they can have some sort of financial balance.

The USPS employs about five hundred and ninety-six thousand people and has over two hundred and eighteen thousand vehicles. They are the second largest employer in America behind Wal-Mart who employs over two million and one hundred thousand people every year.

Because the USPS is a government agency, it is required to deliver the Brand Viagra same services to all Americans. It does not matter where you live or where you are sending your package to.

They must give you the same rate as they would to anyone else who lived in a more convenient location. This makes it harder for private institutions to compete against.

Private companies cannot deliver packages to letterboxes and has to leave packages by people’s front door if no one can receive them personally at the time. The post office used to transport mail by steamboats before waterways came about in 1823.

When the railroads where opened and were working, the United States used them and designated them as post routes in 1838. Stamps used to cost five cents if the letter weighed less than one ounce and traveled less than three hundred miles.

But if your letter had to go further than three hundred miles or your letter weighed more than one ounce, the stamp price was doubled to ten cents. The United States set up a mail steamship company which could carry letters and packages from New York through New Orleans and Havana, to Panama and finally stop in California.

By the year 1918, the Post Office was carrying mail in the air through the US Army Air Service (USAAS). By 1975, air mail had expanded internationally and the USPS began to carry first class mail quite regularly.

As of today, the USPS has thirty-two thousand and seven hundred forty-one post office locations in the country. They deliver about six hundred sixty million packages and letters to around one hundred forty-two places.

The USPS has had to compete with other private companies such as FedEx and UPS (United Parcel Service) which forces them to fix their business strategy. But with the widespread use of email and the internet, it is getting harder for any mail service to increase their volume of mail each year.

Author Bio: Tom Selwick has worked as a marketer for the past 18 years and written hundreds of articles about marketing and direct mail and fulfillment services.

Contact Info:
Tom Selwick
Tom Selwick09@gmail.com
http://www.vgsllc.com

Category: Marketing/Direct Mail
Keywords: direct mail and fulfillment services