The United States Postal Service (USPS) is an "independent establishment of
the executive branch" of the United States government responsible for
providing postal service in the United States; it is generally referred to
within the United States as "the post office."
The postal service was created under Benjamin Franklin on July 26, 1775 by
decree of the Second Continental Congress. Based on a clause in the United
States Constitution empowering Congress "To establish Post Offices and post
Roads," it became the Post Office Department in 1792. In 1971, the
department was reorganized as a quasi-independent agency of the federal
government and acquired its present name.
The USPS is the third-largest employer in the United States (after the
United States Department of Defense and Wal-Mart) and operates the largest
civilian vehicle fleet in the world, with an estimated 170,000 vehicles, the
majority of which are the easily identified "mail trucks," as shown in the
pictures to the right. Some mail carriers use personal vehicles. Standard
postal service vehicles do not have license plates; instead, a truck is
identified by black numbers on its back.
Competition from e-mail and private operations such as United Parcel
Service, FedEx, and DHL has forced USPS to adjust its business strategy and
to modernize its products and services. The Department of Defense and the
USPS jointly operate a postal system to deliver mail for the military known
as the Army Post Office (for Army and USAF postal facilities) and Fleet Post
Office (for Navy, USMC and USCG postal facilities).
Governance and Organization
The USPS is headed by a Board of Governors appointed by the President and
confirmed by the U.S. Senate. The Board has a similar role to a corporate
board of directors, setting policy and procedure and postal rates for
services rendered. The United States Postmaster General, formerly appointed
by the president and confirmed by the Senate, but now appointed by the board
of governors, serves as Chief Operating Officer and oversees the day to day
activities of the service. The USPS is often mistaken for a government-owned
corporation (e.g. Amtrak), but (as noted above) is legally defined as an
"independent establishment of the executive branch of the Government of the
United States," as it is wholly owned by the government and controlled
indirectly by the President. As a government agency, it has many special
privileges, including sovereign immunity, eminent domain powers, powers to
negotiate postal treaties with foreign nations, and an exclusive legal right
to deliver first-class and third-class mail. The USPS has both a commercial
(.com) and governmental (.gov) top level domain, but chooses to use the .com
domain as its primary address, which causes its Internet presence to
resemble that of a corporation more than that of a government agency.
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