The United States Postal Service was founded in 1792 as The Post Office Department. One of the oldest parts of America’s government has been under siege recently. Years of losses have caused some politicians to question whether the Post Office is necessary, or whether it should be a private enterprise. Most recently, there has been concern that cost cuts may make it difficult for the USPS to deliver ballots and then get those ballots back to where they need to be counted before election day on November 3.
Decisions about the fate of the Post Office are not easy. The idea that it could be replaced quickly is unrealistic, at least as long as virtually every address in America is to get mail every day, except Sunday. Even organizations like FedEx and UPS have nowhere near the number of offices, employees, and trucks to move what is over 470 million pieces of mail per day.
The Post Office is also one of the nation’s largest employers. Any decision about its future involves hundreds of thousands of jobs at a time when the job situation across the nation is already shaken, and not in a rapid recovery. And, jobs in a number of other industries rely on the regular delivery of items as diverse as retailer catalogs to magazines to bills.
Despite the fact that every American has heard of the Post Office, and think they know what it does, there are some astounding facts very few people know, and myths about the organization which are not true.
Click here for 10 astonishing facts about the United States Postal Service.
1. USPS and FedEx
In the Post Office’s fiscal year, which ended on September 30, 2019, its revenue was $71.1 billion. That is almost exactly the same as FedEx’s revenue for its most recent year. That would make the Post Office the 44th largest company in America, if it were privately owned.
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Passport applications
The Post Office took 6.6 million passport applications last year. That brought in revenue of $298 million
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No motto
The Post Office does not have an official motto. “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds,” is a myth.
Almost half of the world’s mail
The Post Office handles 48% of the world’s mail. That’s particularly impressive since the United States has only 4% of the world’s population.
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Big employer
The Post Office has 633,908 employees. That’s 50% more people than work at McDonald’s.
Bigger than Starbucks
There are 31,322 Post Offices in the United States. That’s more than twice as many locations as Starbucks.
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Collection boxes
The Post Office has 141,900 collection boxes. Placed side by side, they would stretch 58 miles — that’s farther than from Baltimore to Washington D.C.
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Tires
The Post Office bought 579,000 tires last year. Stacked end to end, they would create a line as long as the distance from Dallas to Houston.
Postmaster General
The Postal Service has been run by 75 Postmasters General. The Board of Governors of the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) appointed Louis DeJoy to the position in May.
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ZIP Codes
There are 42,000 ZIP Codes in America. The system was first set up in 1963 to speed mail delivery.
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