The mail shows up every day, but have you ever thought about how it gets in your mailbox? Here are some fun facts about mail and the Postal Service, just because.
1. Benjamin Franklin was the first postmaster general in U.S. history
Before 1971, the postmaster general was a member of the president’s Cabinet.
2. The Postal Service processed and delivered 425.3 million pieces of mail per day in 2021.
3. There are more than 139,868 blue mail collection boxes in the U.S.
4. There are 31,247 Postal Service-managed retail offices.
5. The U.S. Postal Inspection Service is the law enforcement arm of USPS.
In 2021, inspectors carried out 5,141 arrests and 3,784 convictions for postal crimes, including mail theft and mail fraud.
6. The U.S. Postal Service has no official motto.
The quote often thought to be its motto — "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds" — is inscribed on the James A. Farley Post Office in New York City and comes from the ancient Persian historian Herodotus.
7. USPS generally receives no tax dollars, and funds itself through the sale of postage and other services.
8. Contrary to popular belief, the Pony Express was never officially a part of the U.S. Postal Service.
The official name of the Pony Express was the Overland Express Route.
9. The Breast Cancer Research semipostal stamp has raised more than $93.9 million for breast cancer research since 1998.
More than 1.09 billion stamps have been sold.
10. The Alzheimer’s semipostal has raised more than $1.2 million since 2017.
11. The Save Vanishing Species semipostal has raised more than $6.6 million since 2011.
More than 59.2 million Save Vanishing Species stamps have been sold.
12. The United Kingdom’s iconic red mail collection boxes are called pillar boxes.
After the 2012 London Olympics, pillar boxes in the hometowns of gold medalists were painted gold.
13. The United Nations has an agency called the Universal Postal Union that coordinates postal policy internationally.
14. If it were a private sector company, the Postal Service would rank 43rd in the 2021 Fortune 500.
In the 2021 Global Fortune 500 list, it ranked 123rd.
U.S. Postal Service changes slowed mail service nationwide and were expected to impede efforts to vote by mail. The Montana settlement today applies to all states.
"I've been in postal for 35 years, I've never seen what I'm seeing."
The comments come as Democrats are at odds over how to approach DeJoy.
Maybe this counts as good news in a time of painful price increases: The cost of a U.S. postage stamp has increased by a mere 2 cents.
For the third year in a row, the U.S. Postal Service is hiking the prices of its delivery services — but just for a few months.
Postal carriers have more worries than snow, rain or the gloom of night keeping them from their appointed rounds. These days, they’re increasingly being robbed, often at gunpoint.
The U.S. Postal Service is replacing thousands of antiquated keys used by postal carriers and installing thousands of high-security collection boxes to stop a surge in robberies and mail thefts.Â
Here are the holiday mailing and shipping dates to keep in mind for 2024, according to the USPS.
