50 free USPS trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
The Postal Service is older than the country, authorized by the Constitution, and still hand-delivers to more than 170 million addresses six days a week. These USPS trivia questions cover Benjamin Franklin's appointment, the first stamps of 1847, Rural Free Delivery, the girl who was mailed to her grandparents, the 1970 strike that created the modern agency, ZIP Codes and Mr. ZIP, and the long-life trucks with the steering wheel on the wrong side. Every answer is sourced, with a short explanation so you learn something even when you miss.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Who was appointed the first postmaster general by the Continental Congress?
Benjamin Franklin
He had already run the colonial mails for the Crown before the Revolution gave him a new employer.
Q 02In which city did the Second Continental Congress found the post office in 1775?
Philadelphia
Printers and journalists pushed hardest for it, wanting cheap delivery of their newspapers.
Q 03Which 1792 law, signed by George Washington, created the Post Office Department?
The Postal Service Act
It charged newspapers an extremely low rate and guaranteed the privacy of personal letters.
Q 04What power does the Constitution's Postal Clause grant Congress?
To establish post offices and post roads
The clause was meant both to knit the states together and to raise revenue for the new government.
Q 05In what year did the USPS replace the Post Office Department as an independent agency?
1971
The Postal Reorganization Act was signed in August 1970 and took effect the following July.
Q 06Which president signed the Postal Reorganization Act of 1970?
Richard Nixon
The law followed a nationwide wildcat strike by postal workers earlier that year.
Q 07The 1970 postal strike began with workers in which city?
New York
It spread to more than 210,000 workers nationwide before ending without formal concessions.
Q 08Which president first invited the postmaster general to sit in his Cabinet, in 1829?
Andrew Jackson
Postmasterships became prized patronage jobs, often handed to editors of party newspapers.
Q 09Who founded the American Letter Mail Company in 1844 to challenge the postal monopoly?
Lysander Spooner
His cheaper, faster service was popular until federal pressure shut it down and Congress tightened the monopoly in 1851.
Q 10The Post Office's first public telegraph line ran from Washington to which city?
Baltimore
The lines were sold off three years later, except for a stretch during World War I.
Q 11What did the V in the wartime "V-Mail" service stand for?
Victory
Letters were shrunk to microfilm and reprinted near the destination to free up cargo space.
Q 12In what year did the first US postage stamps go on sale?
1847
The 5-cent stamp covered a letter under an ounce going less than 300 miles; 10 cents went farther.
Q 13Free home delivery of mail began in larger cities in what year?
1863
Before then, recipients had to collect their mail at the post office themselves.
Q 14Rural Free Delivery arrived in what year?
Q 21Which postal inspector is considered the father of the ZIP Code?
Robert A. Moon
He proposed it in 1944; the post office credits him with only the first three digits.
Q 22What cartoon character did the Post Office use to promote ZIP Codes?
Mr. ZIP
He appeared in stamp margins and in a variety show alongside a group called The Swingin' Six.
Q 23Which state's abbreviation was changed from NB to NE in 1969?
Nebraska
The Canadian Post Office asked for the change to avoid confusion with New Brunswick.
1896
Combined with parcel post in 1913, it let farm families order goods from distant cities by mail.
Q 15What did the Post Office ban after a four-year-old was mailed to her grandparents in 1914?
Mailing people
Charlotte May Pierstorff travelled by parcel post to Idaho; students kept mailing laundry home for decades.
Q 16A 1917 daily weight limit followed a man who shipped 80,000 of what by parcel post?
Bricks
W. H. Coltharp built a bank in Vernal, Utah, with masonry that arrived 407 miles by wagon and train.
Q 17Sorters in Railway Mail Service cars were expected to handle how many pieces an hour?
600
They were tested regularly for speed and accuracy and ranked among the service's most skilled workers.
Q 18What interest rate did the Postal Savings System pay depositors?
2 percent
The system ran from 1911 to 1967 and was aimed partly at immigrants used to postal banks back home.
Q 19In which year was the five-digit ZIP Code introduced?
1963
Within three months, the man who proposed it estimated 30 percent of mail already carried one.
Q 20What does the acronym ZIP stand for?
Zone Improvement Plan
The name was picked to suggest mail zipping along faster when the code is included.
Q 24In what year did the USPS add the four-digit ZIP+4 extension?
1983
The public largely ignored it; sorting machines now read the add-on straight from the address.
Q 25Why are most USPS delivery vehicles right-hand drive?
For easy reach to roadside mailboxes
Postal-owned vehicles also carry no license plates, just a seven-digit fleet number front and back.
Q 26What does LLV stand for in the name of the classic Grumman mail truck?
Long-life vehicle
Built from 1987 to 1994, they lack air conditioning, airbags and anti-lock brakes.
Q 27Which company won the 2021 contract to build the Next Generation Delivery Vehicle?
Oshkosh Defense
The $6 billion deal covers 165,000 trucks in gasoline and battery-electric versions.
Q 28Every one-cent rise in gasoline prices costs the USPS roughly how much per year?
$8 million
The fleet burned 444 million gallons in 2009 at a cost of about $1.1 billion.
Q 29Where is the Mail Recovery Center, once called the dead letter office?
Atlanta, Georgia
Unclaimed items are held 90 days, then destroyed or sold at a monthly auction.
Q 30Forever Stamps, good for a one-ounce letter whatever the rate, debuted in what year?
2007
Every unused US stamp issued since the Civil War is still valid at its face value.