United States Postal Service

The Setting the Record Straight section of USPS.com features letters to newspaper editors, television producers, and other media representatives which USPS has sent in response to criticisms of the Postal Service and to uses of the term "going postal.". Through its Lufthansa Berlin Stiftung, it operates three classic German aircraft as well:. Another example is the movie Men in Black II, where all of Tommy Lee Jones' co-workers at the post office turn out to be aliens. The first will be delivered before the end of 2007 and they are likely to be used on services to Asia and the USA (ref: Airliner World, March 2005). This stereotype in turn has influenced American culture, as seen in the slang term "going postal" and the computer game Postal.
Lufthansa has ordered 15 Airbus A380 aircraft. Thanks to sensationalistic media coverage, postal employees gained a mostly undeserved reputation among the general public as being mentally ill. The Lufthansa fleet consists of the following aircraft (as per July 2005):.

In the early 1990s, there was a widely publicized wave of workplace shootings by disgruntled employees at USPS facilities. See full article: Lufthansa destinations. USPS employees are divided into three major categories according to the work they engage in:. The most important are:. It employed 790,000 personnel in 2003, divided into offices, processing centers, and actual post offices. In addition to its mainline operation, Lufthansa has many subsidiaries. The USPS employs more people than any other single company in the United States except Wal-Mart. The majority shareholders (the Swiss government and large Swiss companies) will be offered payment if Lufthansa's share price outperforms an airline index during the years following the merger.

The sponsorship ended in 2004, after which the Discovery Channel stepped in as the main sponsor, with the team renamed Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team. The deal consists of Lufthansa offering public shareholders the average price over the weeks prior to the announcement. The team features Lance Armstrong, winner of the Tour de France from 1999 to 2005. On 22 March 2005 SWISS merged with Lufthansa Airlines. For a number of years, the USPS had been head sponsor of a professional cycling team, bearing its name. It is one of the first terminals in Europe partially owned by an airline. Authorized providers of PC Postage are:. In June 2003 Lufthansa opened new Terminal 2 at Munich's Franz Josef Strauß Airport (MUC) to relieve its main hub, Frankfurt (FRA), which is plagued with capacity constraints.

In addition to using standard stamps, postage can now be printed from a personal computer using a system called Information Based Indicia. On 17 May 2004, Lufthansa became the launch customer for Boeing's Connexion in-flight online connectivity service. [1]. By doing so, Lufthansa became the first foreign launch customer for a Boeing commercial plane. Written permission is required for use of copyrighted postage stamp images. Lufthansa was the launch customer of the Boeing 737 aircraft, and the only buyers of new 737-100s. After this time they are copyright by the postal service under Title 17 of the United States Code. Lufthansa was banned from flying into West Berlin until the demise of the communist regime.

All US postage stamps and other postage items that were released before 1978 are in the public domain. East Germany instead called its national airline Interflug, which ceased operations in 1991. Stamps with no value shown or denominated by a letter are also still valid at their purchase price. In the 1950s East Germany attempted to establish its own airline using the Lufthansa name, but this resulted in a dispute with West Germany, where the airline had been already re-established after the Second World War. All unused US postage stamps issued since 1861 are still valid as postage at their indicated value. The name Lufthansa derives from Luft (the German word for "air") and Hansa (the Hanseatic trade organization that ruled large parts of Northern Europe during the medieval times). Paul. The company's original full name was Deutsche Luft Hansa Aktiengesellschaft.

The Postal Service also contracts with the National Railroad Passenger Corporation, or Amtrak to carry some mail between certain cities such as Chicago, Illinois and Minneapolis-St. The company was founded in 1926 and headquartered in Berlin, following a merger between "Deutsche Aero Lloyd" (DAL) and "Junkers Luftverkehr" on January 6 of that year. Contract airlines have included: Emery Worldwide, Ryan International, Federal Express, Rhoades Aviation, and Express 1 International. . Depending on the contract, you may see aircraft painted with the USPS paint scheme. The Lufthansa Group operates more than 300 aircraft and employs about 97000 people world-wide. The contracts change periodically. Lufthansa is a founding member of Star Alliance, one of the world's major airline alliances.

The mail and packages are flown on airlines with which they have a contractual agreement. In the future after the merging with the SWISS, the Zurich Airport will be also a main traffic hub. The United States Postal Service does not directly own or operate any aircraft or trains. The company has developed a second hub at Munich's Franz Josef Strauß International Airport. Airmail, Global Priority, Global Express, and Global Express Guaranteed Mail are offered to ship mail and packages to almost every country and territory on the globe. Their main base is at Frankfurt International Airport in Frankfurt am Main which is also Lufthansa's primary traffic hub. Express Mail is the fastest mail service. Lufthansa (Deutsche Lufthansa AG) is the largest German airline company, headquartered in Cologne.

Priority Mail is an expedited mail service with a few additional features. Interflug. Same as Media Mail, but receives an additional discount and may be used only for books or recordings being sent to or from a public library, museum or academic institution. 1 Dornier 27. Maximum weight is 70 pounds (31.75 kg). 1 Messerschmitt Me 108. Formerly (and colloquially, still) known as "Book Rate," Media Mail is used to send books, printed materials, sound recordings, videotapes, CD-ROMs, diskettes, and similar, but cannot contain advertising. 1 Junkers 52.

Used to send packages weighing up to 70 pounds (31.75 kg). 30 Boeing 747-400. Used for businesses to send large quantities of mail. 28 Boeing 737-500. Used mainly for businesses. 33 Boeing 737-300. One rate regardless of distance. 18 MD-11F (Lufthansa Cargo only).

The normal mail service used by individuals and business sending a small amount of mail. 10 Airbus A340-600 (further 7 on order). Mail is flown, usually as baggage on commercial airlines, to the airport nearest the destination station, then at a nearby processing center the mail is once again read by a Delivery Bar Code System which sorts the items into their local destinations, including grouping them by individual mail carrier. 30 Airbus A340-300. Items for local delivery are retained in the postal station while other items are trucked to either the appropriate station if it is within approximately 200 miles, or the airport for transport to more distant destinations. 13 Airbus A300-600. Once the mail is bar coded, it is automatically sorted into destination postal stations. 8 Airbus A330-300 (further 2 on order).

If no valid address can be determined, the items are held for 90 days in case of inquiry by the customer; and if they are not claimed then they are destroyed. 2 Airbus A330-200. If not, the item is sent to one of three Mail Recovery Centers in the United States (formerly known as Dead Letter Offices, originated by Benjamin Franklin in the 1770s) where it receives more intense scrutiny, including being opened to determine if any of the contents are a clue. 6 Airbus A321-200. If a local postal worker can read the address, the appropriate bar code is printed onto the item. 26 Airbus A321-100. Mail with addresses which cannot be resolved by the automated system are separated for human intervention. 34 Airbus A320-200.

When it has decided on a correct address, it prints the appropriate bar code onto the envelopes, similarly to the MLOCR system. 12 Airbus A319-100. It also corrects spelling errors and, where there is an error, omission, or conflict in the written address, identifies the most likely correct address. 42 CRJ-100/200. Mail with handwritten addresses goes to the Remote Bar Coding System, a highly advanced scanning system with a state of the art neural net processor which is highly effective at correctly reading almost all addresses, no matter how badly written. 20 CRJ-700. Mail with typed addresses goes to a Multiline Optical Character Reader (MLOCR) which reads the ZIP Code and address information and prints the appropriate bar code onto the envelope. 18 Avro RJ85.

The mail is then output by the machine into three categories; mail already having bar-coded addresses (such as many preaddressed reply envelopes and cards), mail with typed addresses, and mail with handwritten addresses. Condor, a travel services provider. Using the location of the stamp as one clue among others, it identifies the orientation of each item, and rotates them when necessary so that all the items are similarly oriented. Lufthansa Flight Training, a major provider of flight crew training services to various airlines. In contrast to the previous system which merely canceled and postmarked the upper right corner of the envelope, thereby missing any stamps which were inappropriately placed, the Advanced Facer-Canceler is sophisticated enough to locate the stamp anywhere on the envelope and cancel it and apply a postmark. LSG Sky Chefs, the world's largest airline caterer, which accounts for one third of the world's airline meals. Mail is removed from the plastic tub in which it is transported and inserted into the Advanced Facer-Canceler System by hand, which is the last individual human contact most of the mail has until it is sorted by the carrier at the destination postal station. Delvag, an insurance company specializing in air transport.

Currently, processing of standard sized envelopes and cards is highly automated, including reading of handwritten addresses. Air Dolomiti, an airline based in Trieste, Italy. The USPS postal addressing standards may be found here. Thomas Cook, a travel services provider. The Post Office recommends use of all upper case block letters using the appropriate formats and abbreviations and leaving out all punctuation except for the hyphen in the ZIP+4 code to ease automated address reading and speed processing, particularly for handwritten addresses; if the address is unusually formatted or illegible enough, it will require hand-processing, delaying that particular item. Lufthansa CityLine, a regional carrier. A common myth is that a comma is required after the city name, but this is not true. Lufthansa Regional, a regional carrier that is an alliance of several small airlines, including Lufthansa CityLine.

The formatting of a return address is identical. Lufthansa Systems, one of the world's leading aviation IT-providers. The USPS maintains a list of proper abbreviations at this page. Lufthansa Technik, one of the world's largest aircraft maintenance providers. It is placed in the upper-left corner. Lufthansa Cargo. This is the address you wish the recipient to respond to, and, if necessary, the letter to be returned to if delivery fails.

A third, and optional (but strongly suggested) addition is a return address. First-class mail costs 37¢ upwards, depending on the weight of the letter and the class, and the indicia is supposed to be placed in the upper-right corner. The second is some means of indicating that postage has been paid, usually a stamp, but perhaps a meter label, or in certain cases such as members of Congress a signature or other writing indicating that the sender has franking privileges. Another optional addition to the address is a ZIP+4 code.

It is sometimes required to put the name of the addressee above the address; regardless, it is always a good idea to do so. The first is the address of the recipient, to be placed in the center of the envelope. For any letter addressed within the United States, the USPS requires two things on the envelope. Temporary stations are often set up for applying pictorial cancellations.

While common usage refers to all types of postal facilities as "substations," the USPS Glossary of Postal Terms does not define or even list that word. Although its customer service centers are called post offices in regular speech, the USPS recognizes several types of postal facilities, including the following:. In addition, congress appropriated the USPS a total of $762 million for biohazard decontamination and detection equipment in response to the 2001 anthrax attacks. $36 million such compensation was paid for fiscal 2004.

It does, however, receive compensation from taxpayer funds for certain services that it is mandated to provide for free or at a discount, including free mail for the blind, military mail, nonprofit mail and overseas ballots. The USPS claims to have operated "in a businesslike manner without taxpayer support" since it became a government-owned corporation on July 1, 1971 following the passage of the Postal Reorganization Act of 1970. Therefore some critics view the current tax exemption as a subsidy provided by the government to the USPS. However there is a possibility that a private alternatives to the USPS monopoly on normal letter delivery could be profitable and net tax contributors (Private competitors in package delivery have become profitable even with the tax burden placed on them).

Since the USPS is also directed by law to break even in the long run, there is currently not much tax revenue lost due to this tax exemption. As an affiliate of the federal government, the USPS is not required to pay any of the federal or state income taxes that regular businesses pay. As it continues to lose package services market share to private competitors, the USPS and its organizational structure face an uncertain future. In countries that have recently undergone postal service privatization, such as Germany, no meaningful competition for first-class letter delivery has materialized and the overall cost of services to consumers has risen.

Today, it is doubtful whether any meaningful competition for ordinary letter delivery would develop in the absence of a monopoly, as letter volume continues to dwindle due to replacement by more efficient electronic means of communication and payment (disputed — see talk page). However, this 37 cents does not include taxpayer-funded assistance that the USPS receives. compares favorably to other industrialized countries, such as those of the European Union, where the postage for an ordinary domestic first-class letter is nearly twice that much. The 37 cents (USD) required by the USPS to deliver a letter in the U.S.

government and exhausted his resources trying to defend what he believed to be his right to compete. He was successfully challenged with legal measures by the U.S. In the 1840s Lysander Spooner started the commercially successful American Letter Mail Company which competed with the United States Post Office by providing lower rates. Mail." Hence, private carriers must deliver packages directly to the recipient, leave them in the open near the recipient's front door, or place them in a special box dedicated solely to that carrier (a technique commonly used by small courier and messenger services).

The USPS also enjoys a monopoly privilege in placing mail into standardized mailboxes marked "U.S. postage, whichever is greater (other stipulations, such as maximum delivery time, apply as well); or, alternatively, it may be delivered for free. However, an exception to private carriers is made with regard to "extremely urgent letters" as long as the private carrier charges at least $3 or twice the U.S. The USPS enjoys monopoly status in that it possesses the exclusive permission under federal law to deliver first and third class mail.

The USPS says that these statutes were enacted by Congress "to provide for an economically sound postal system that could afford to deliver letters between any two locations, however remote." In effect, those who mail letters to a near location are subsidizing those who are mailing letters to distant locations. The USPS enjoys a government monopoly with respect to first-class and third-class letter delivery under the authority of the Private Express Statutes. However, some links on the website, like to the international rate calculator, link back to .gov, and the .com address does not work. The more-appropriate usps.gov address merely redirects to the .com version.

Although they are governmental in nature, they have for the last few years insisted on using usps.com as their primary Internet address, with a .com top level domain implying that they are a commercial entity. 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. They set policy and procedure and postal rates for services rendered. The USPS is headed by a Board of Governors or Governor of the United States Postal Service, (appointed by the President and confirmed by the US Senate), who serve as its corporate board of directors.

. The Department of Defense and the USPS jointly operate a postal system to deliver mail for the military known as the Army/Air Force Post Office and the Fleet Post Office. 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. Some rural mail carriers use personal vehicles.

The USPS is the third-largest employer in the US (after the Defense Department and Walmart), 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 picture to the right. In 1971, the USPS was reorganized as a government-owned corporation. 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. The postal service was created under Benjamin Franklin on July 26, 1775 by decree of the Second Continental Congress.

The United States Postal Service (USPS) is the United States government-owned corporation responsible for providing postal service in the United States; it is generally referred to within the United States as "the post office.". DCO's (Data Conversion Operators), who type out and forward mail to their destinations. Clerks work in the post offices, handling customers' needs, receiving express mail, and selling stamps. Work is physically strenuous, especially for mail handlers; many mailbags loaded from and onto trucks weigh as much as 60 pounds (27 kg).

Mail handlers and processors often work at the evening and night to prepare mail and bulk goods for the carriers to deliver. Letter Carriers, also referred to as mailmen or mail-carriers; are the public face of the USPS. Endicia Internet Postage. Pitney Bowes.

Stamps.com. Available for First-Class Mail, Express Mail, Priority Mail, and Package Services (Parcel Post, Bound Printed Matter, and Media Mail). Amount to be collected cannot exceed $1,000. Insurance comes included with fee.

Allows merchants to offer customers a chance to pay upon delivery. Available for Priority Mail and First Class Mail. Provides mailing receipt, delivery record, and protection for valuables. Available for First Class Mail and Priority Mail.

Provides proof of mailing, and a delivery record. Covers material losses only minus depreciation. Available for amounts up to $5,000. Provides package with insurance from loss or damage while in transit.

Only available with First Class Mail, Priority Mail, and Package Services (Media Mail, Parcel Post, and Bound Printed Matter). Recipient's signature is kept on file. Confirms delivery with signature. Only available with First Class Mail, Priority Mail, and Package Services (Media Mail, Parcel Post, and Bound Printed Matter).

Results available online or telephone. Detailed package tracking is not included, but information is sometimes available. Confirms delivery of package. Money orders are cashable only by the recipient, like a bank check.

Provide a safe alternative to sending cash through the mail. Sunday and holiday delivery. Guaranteed on-time delivery. Delivery to most addresses in the United States.

Packages up to 50 pounds (22.7 kg). Flat rate envelope available. Typically overnight or second-day delivery. Delivery to every address in the United States.

Label can be printed online. Packages up to 70 pounds (31.75 kg). Flat rate envelopes and boxes available (one rate for whatever you put in the envelope). Average delivery time is 2-3 days (but this is NOT guaranteed, may take longer).

Much cheaper than Parcel Post, but sometimes slower. Rates based on weight. Delivery to every address in the United States. Rates based on distance, weight, and shape.

Mail must usually be brought to a postal facility. May require additional work by the sender, such as pre-sorting by ZIP Code. Enforced rules about mailpiece quality and addressing. Permit required.

Discounted rates. Can be First Class or Standard Mail. Annual fee. Not for personal correspondence, letters, bills, or statements.

No return service unless requested (an additional fee is charged for return service). Must weigh less than 16 ounces (454 g). Minimum 200 pieces per mailing. Delivery to every address in the United States, except some small towns with no delivery to addresses within a quarter mile (400 m) of the post office.

Mail is picked up at customer's house or place of business, or can be dropped in any public mail collection box. Recommendations (but no enforced rules) about mailpiece quality and addressing. Available to anyone. Forwarding service: With a valid change of address on file, mail coming to the old address will be sent to the new address for up to 12 months.

Best effort delivery including return service for undeliverable mail. Packages weighing up to 13 ounces (369 g) can be sent. Sending a postcard costs 23 cents. Each additional ounce is an additional 23 cents, up to 13 ounces.

Letters: The cost to send a letter weighing up to 1 ounce (28 g) is 37 cents. A sectional center facility is a P&DC for a desgnated geographical area defined by one or more three-digit ZIP code prefixes. A processing and distribution center (P&DC) or processing and distribution facility is a central mail facility that processes and dispatches incoming and outgoing mail to and from a designated service area. A finance unit is a station or branch that provides window services and accepts mail, but does not provide delivery.

A community post office (CPO) is a contract postal unit providing services in a small community in which other types of post office facilites have been discontinued. A contract postal unit is a station or branch operated by a contractor, typically in a store or other place of business. A classified unit is a station or branch operated by USPS employees in a facility owned or leased by the USPS. A branch or post office branch is a postal facility that is not the main post office and that is outside the corporate limits of the community.

A station or post office station is a postal facility that is not the main post office, but that is within the corporate limits of the community. A main post office, formerly known as a general post office, is the primary postal facility in a community.