Time once again to lighten things up a bit by providing you with some little-known, fun facts about the United States Postal Service® (USPS®).
Post Office Facts
• The shortest rural mail delivery route is Route 007 in Moody AL, where the carrier travels 2.1 miles each day and delivers to 286 boxes.
• The longest rural mail delivery route is Route 081 in Mangum OK, where the carrier travels 187.6 miles each day and delivers to 240 boxes.
• The most common city names are Franklin, with 31 locations, Clinton and Washington with 29 locations each, Arlington with 28 locations and Chester, Georgetown, Madison and Salem with 27 locations each.
• The longest Main Street in America is located in Island Park ID and is 33 miles long!
• The most unusual mail delivery method involves mule train delivery in Arizona. Each mule carries 130 pounds of mail, food, supplies and furniture down the 8-mile trail to the Havasupai Indians at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. The mule train averages 4,000 pounds of materials each day.
• The Postal Service moves mail using planes, trains and automobiles – as well as trucks, boats, ferries, helicopters, subways, float planes, hovercaft, mules, bicycles and feet.
Facts and Figures
Here are some fascinating USPS figures, on a per day basis:
• $222.2 million — average revenue received
• 523 million — average number of mail pieces processed and delivered
• 217.3 million — pieces of First Class Mail processed and delivered
• 267 million — pieces of Advertising Mail processed and delivered
• 22 million — average number of mailpieces processed each hour
• 363,300 — average number of mailpieces processed each minute
• $180 million — amount paid to postal employees in salaries and benefits
• 4 million — number of miles driven by letter carriers and truck drivers
• 7,559 — number of letter carriers who deliver mail entirely on foot
• 128,000 — number of address changes processed
• 2,554 — number of addresses added to the delivery network
• 0 — tax dollars received for operating the Postal Service
Mail to the Military
• The Military Postal Service Agency (MSPA) is the managing authority over Military Postal Service (MPS) operations.
• MPS customers receive virtually the same level of service as if they were at home in the United States. Differences are based on the country in which they are stationed and the type of military operation in which they are involved.
• Until 1980 each military service and government agency managed its own mail program. In 1980 the MPSA was formed, and the Department of Defense designated the Secretary of the Army as the single military mail manager.
• Created to link all the partners together with a common goal, the MPS provides postal services to military personnel around the world.
• In 2013, 8.6 million pounds of mail were delivered from the U.S. to military installations around the world.
• Military mail moves within the United States via the Postal Service transportation network to a major postal mail processing facilities.
• If the mail is First-Class™, Priority Mail® or Priority Mail Express, it will move from the major airport gateway in the U.S. to an overseas airport gateway on commercially U.S.-owned aircraft to overseas locations. From the overseas airport gateways, mail is then moved by various methods to the designated Post Offices for delivery to the individual.
• There are 215 land-based Post Offices and 160 on ships.
• There are nearly 1,000 delivery ZIP Codes for military mail around the world.
For more postal trivia, check out Postal Facts 2014.