The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) has lost billions of dollars. However, it does deliver the mail to every American, usually on time, at its motto suggests:

Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.

Among 13 federal agencies, the one with the most positive impression is the USPS, with 72% of those polled rating it “excellent or good.” At the other end of the spectrum is the agency that has probably gotten the most damaging publicity, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), with a “poor” rating of 35% and an “excellent or good” of 29%. Also near the bottom, which should be expected, is the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), with a “poor” rating of 27% and an excellent or good” rating of only 41%. The Federal Reserve sits near the bottom as well, with a “poor” rating of 14% but an “excellent or good” rating of 38%. Not very good for an agency that has been credited with saving the U.S. economy. Perhaps it has been damaged by the public’s perception that it operates in secret.

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The rating of the USPS is not uniform across all age groups, according to Gallup:

The Postal Service is the nation’s second-largest employer, and an agency virtually all Americans interact with to some extent in their daily lives. Younger Americans, who may have accumulated less experience with the service, have a very positive image of the job it is doing. All age groups give solid approval ratings to the Postal Service — however, their ratings decline from 81% among the youngest age group to 65% among the oldest.

As for the future, Gallup guesses:

With the country becoming more reliant on the Internet and rapidly embracing e-commerce, the increased amount of shipping and packaging could prove even more beneficial for the Postal Service both in its image ratings and financial performance. If the way in which Americans consume the agency’s services affects its image, future ratings could trend upward as the market shifts. And the Postal Service has actually seen significant growth and profitability in its shipping and packaging business year over year. The agency’s current leadership team has recognized this trend and opportunity and has even partnered with Amazon to deliver packages on Sundays.

An ancient agency, founded in 1775 with Benjamin Franklin as its first Postmaster General, helped by the latest trends in shipping.

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Methodology: Results for this Gallup poll are based on telephone interviews conducted Nov. 11 to 12, 2014, on the Gallup U.S. Daily survey, with a random sample of 1,020 adults, aged 18 and older, living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. For results based on the total sample of national adults, the margin of sampling error is ±4 percentage points at the 95% confidence level.

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