50 Fun Facts About USPS

Who was appointed the first postmaster general by the Continental Congress?

He had already run the colonial mails for the Crown before the Revolution gave him a new employer.

In which city did the Second Continental Congress found the post office in 1775?

Printers and journalists pushed hardest for it, wanting cheap delivery of their newspapers.

Which 1792 law, signed by George Washington, created the Post Office Department?

It charged newspapers an extremely low rate and guaranteed the privacy of personal letters.

What power does the Constitution's Postal Clause grant Congress?

The clause was meant both to knit the states together and to raise revenue for the new government.

In what year did the USPS replace the Post Office Department as an independent agency?

The Postal Reorganization Act was signed in August 1970 and took effect the following July.

Which president signed the Postal Reorganization Act of 1970?

The law followed a nationwide wildcat strike by postal workers earlier that year.

The 1970 postal strike began with workers in which city?

It spread to more than 210,000 workers nationwide before ending without formal concessions.

Which president first invited the postmaster general to sit in his Cabinet, in 1829?

Postmasterships became prized patronage jobs, often handed to editors of party newspapers.

Who founded the American Letter Mail Company in 1844 to challenge the postal monopoly?

His cheaper, faster service was popular until federal pressure shut it down and Congress tightened the monopoly in 1851.

The Post Office's first public telegraph line ran from Washington to which city?

The lines were sold off three years later, except for a stretch during World War I.

What did the V in the wartime "V-Mail" service stand for?

Letters were shrunk to microfilm and reprinted near the destination to free up cargo space.

In what year did the first US postage stamps go on sale?

The 5-cent stamp covered a letter under an ounce going less than 300 miles; 10 cents went farther.

Free home delivery of mail began in larger cities in what year?

Before then, recipients had to collect their mail at the post office themselves.

Rural Free Delivery arrived in what year?

Combined with parcel post in 1913, it let farm families order goods from distant cities by mail.

What did the Post Office ban after a four-year-old was mailed to her grandparents in 1914?

Charlotte May Pierstorff travelled by parcel post to Idaho; students kept mailing laundry home for decades.

A 1917 daily weight limit followed a man who shipped 80,000 of what by parcel post?

W. H. Coltharp built a bank in Vernal, Utah, with masonry that arrived 407 miles by wagon and train.

Sorters in Railway Mail Service cars were expected to handle how many pieces an hour?

They were tested regularly for speed and accuracy and ranked among the service's most skilled workers.

What interest rate did the Postal Savings System pay depositors?

The system ran from 1911 to 1967 and was aimed partly at immigrants used to postal banks back home.

In which year was the five-digit ZIP Code introduced?

Within three months, the man who proposed it estimated 30 percent of mail already carried one.

What does the acronym ZIP stand for?

The name was picked to suggest mail zipping along faster when the code is included.

Which postal inspector is considered the father of the ZIP Code?

He proposed it in 1944; the post office credits him with only the first three digits.

What cartoon character did the Post Office use to promote ZIP Codes?

He appeared in stamp margins and in a variety show alongside a group called The Swingin' Six.

Which state's abbreviation was changed from NB to NE in 1969?

The Canadian Post Office asked for the change to avoid confusion with New Brunswick.

In what year did the USPS add the four-digit ZIP+4 extension?

The public largely ignored it; sorting machines now read the add-on straight from the address.

Why are most USPS delivery vehicles right-hand drive?

Postal-owned vehicles also carry no license plates, just a seven-digit fleet number front and back.

What does LLV stand for in the name of the classic Grumman mail truck?

Built from 1987 to 1994, they lack air conditioning, airbags and anti-lock brakes.

Which company won the 2021 contract to build the Next Generation Delivery Vehicle?

The $6 billion deal covers 165,000 trucks in gasoline and battery-electric versions.

Every one-cent rise in gasoline prices costs the USPS roughly how much per year?

The fleet burned 444 million gallons in 2009 at a cost of about $1.1 billion.

Where is the Mail Recovery Center, once called the dead letter office?

Unclaimed items are held 90 days, then destroyed or sold at a monthly auction.

Forever Stamps, good for a one-ounce letter whatever the rate, debuted in what year?

Every unused US stamp issued since the Civil War is still valid at its face value.

Unused US postage stamps issued since which year remain valid today?

Earlier issues were demonetized during the Civil War so stocks held in the South became worthless.

What did a one-ounce First-Class stamp cost after the July 2024 increase?

A further rise to 82 cents was filed to take effect in July 2026.

How many members sit on the USPS governing board?

Nine are presidential appointees; they pick the postmaster general, who then helps pick a deputy.

Who selects the postmaster general?

That arrangement dates from the reorganization; before then the job was a presidential Cabinet post.

Who was appointed postmaster general in May 2020?

He was the first appointee in two decades to come from outside the postal service.

Which 2006 law forced the USPS to pre-fund future retirees' health benefits?

The target was $5 billion a year; within six years the service began defaulting on payments.

The 2022 postal reform law forgave roughly how much USPS debt?

It also scrapped the pre-funding mandate and required Monday-to-Saturday delivery.

In which year did first-class mail volume peak?

By 2020 it had roughly halved as email and the web took over correspondence.

Which competitor flies Priority Mail and Priority Mail Express for the USPS?

The two are direct rivals on the ground, but the USPS hands its air mail to UPS at the nearest airport.

On which day does the USPS deliver only Priority Express and Amazon packages?

Parcels also move on most holidays, with Thanksgiving and Christmas the exceptions.

On which holiday will the USPS deliver Priority Mail Express in select areas for a fee?

The four weeks before Christmas are the service's peak, with 11.7 billion pieces in 2022.

Which law enforcement agency did Franklin found on August 7, 1775?

Its inspectors enforce more than 200 federal laws and can raid firms suspected of dodging the letter monopoly.

Which company was fined $30,000 in 1993 for sending non-urgent mail via FedEx?

Postal inspectors raided its offices to check whether the overnight letters were truly urgent.

What does the USPS photograph under the Mail Cover Program?

Law enforcement can request the images without a warrant as part of an investigation.

How many free COVID-19 test kits had the USPS delivered by March 2024?

The first 380 million went out between January and May 2022.

What share of 2020 mail ballots reached election officials within three days?

The inspector general counted about 135 million pieces of election mail that autumn.

What is the name of the 10-year USPS reform plan launched in March 2021?

It pledged $40 billion in technology and facilities and 60 new regional processing centers.

Where did one of the first new regional processing centers open in November 2023?

The 700,000-square-foot building is one of 60 planned to replace smaller facilities.

Which three freely associated states are folded into the USPS ZIP Code system?

Mail to them counts as domestic, though it still needs a customs declaration.

Roughly how many delivery points did the USPS serve in fiscal year 2025?

It moved 108.7 billion pieces of mail and packages through nearly 31,000 retail offices that year.