USPS Facts

We deliver to every household and business in the United States. Every American has access to our services and pays the same postage rate regardless of geographic location. We...

Deliver mail to over 142 million homes, businesses and post office boxes in every state, city, and town in the country; including Puerto Rico, Guam, the American Virgin Islands and American Samoa

Add 1.8 million new addresses each year to our delivery network

Serve over 7 million customers daily at nearly 38,000 post offices

Have annual operating revenue of $69 billion

Deliver more than 206 billion pieces of mail a year

Collect mail from over 280,000 points—including blue street mail boxes—across the country

Pay nearly $2 billion in employee salaries and benefits every two weeks

Employ more than 700,000 career employees

Have the world's largest Intranet to communicate with our employees

Provide alternative access for our customers to purchase stamps at more than 27,500 vending machines; nearly 25,000 commercial retail outlets such as supermarkets, convenience, drug and gift stores; nearly 19,000 banking and credit union automated teller machines, and 2,500 automated postal centers located across the country

Do not receive tax dollars from the federal government for operating expenses. We use the revenue from sales of postage-related products to pay these expenses

Delivering For You.

Innovation, performance and a focus on service contributed to a record year for the United States Postal Service in 2004.

Delivering Our Best

On-time delivery of overnight-committed First-Class Mail held at a record 95% for the year—and jumped to an incredible 96% in quarter three! And service in all measured categories reached record levels.* Customers told us they saw improvements in unmeasured service categories, as well.

Satisfying Customers

We delivered for our customers, and they noticed. Independently measured customer satisfaction scores for the fourth quarter reached a new height, with 94% of residential customers rating their experience with the Postal Service as excellent, very good or good.

Staying Productive

We achieved a record fifth straight year of positive total factor productivity (TFP). These gains have provided the equivalent of $6.1 billion in cost savings. TFP includes all factors of production and measures the growth in the ratio of resources we use—the inputs—to the products and services they produce—the outputs.

We are everywhere you are.

Our network gives us access to every American household and business — we are everywhere you are.
We handle more than 44% of the world's card and letter mail volume — delivering more mail to more addresses to a larger geographical area than any other postal system in the world

We move mail using every viable means of transportation: planes, trains, trucks, cars, boats, helicopters, bicycles, and even mules

We operate a transport and delivery fleet of over 200,000 vehicles driving approximately 1.1 billion miles a year

Each letter carrier delivers about 2,300 pieces of mail a day to approximately 500 addresses

There are 86 million pounds of mail traveling through our processing centers every day

About 17% of the nation's population moves every year. The Postal Service processes more than 44 million changes of address for temporary and permanent moves

We forward over 3 billion pieces of mail a year, at no extra charge to the moving customer

We are a world leader in developing and using optical character recognition — our sorting equipment reads more than 91% of the hand-written addresses on envelopes

The Postal Service works with the State Department to accept passport applications. In 2004, nearly 4 million passport applications were accepted in post offices around the country — 60% of what the State Department processed

When fuel costs rise one-cent, our costs increase $8 million

A relationship built on trust.

The U.S. Postal Service is the most visible and personal of all federal agencies. People know they can trust the Postal Service. And, postal employees are a part of the neighborhoods they serve, making significant contributions to their communities.

The U.S. Postal Inspection Service, one of the country's oldest federal law enforcement agencies, protects mail users by investigating criminal acts involving the mail, postal employees and property

Sales of the Breast Cancer Research semi-postal stamp raised more than $42.6 million from the sales of nearly 600 million stamps

Sales of the Heroes semi-postal stamp raised more than $10.5 million to assist families of emergency relief personnel killed or permanently disabled in the line of duty on 9/11/01

We support our military troops in other parts of the world by working closely with Department of Defense sponsored agencies and by providing free shipping supplies for care packages to the men and women serving our country

Working with ADVO to reunite families, the "Have You Seen Me" detached directmail card emphasizes the power of the mail by contributing to the safe recovery of 136 missing children (as of 12/31) and returning them to their homes

Every year we sponsor National Dog Bite Week — a public safety campaign — to build community awareness through local events and media attention concerning animal attacks. This year, National Dog Bite Week will be May 15-21

Since 1993, the Postal Service and the National Association of Letter Carriers have sponsored the nation's largest one-day food drive, raising an average of over 60 million pounds of food for the hungry every year

Every year, postal employees pledge an average of $38 million to Combined Federal Campaign

The Postal Service is a recognized leader in efforts to make the world a safer and cleaner place and has received numerous environmental awards for its practices

We:
Received seven White House "Closing the Circle" awards for environmental achievement

The Postal Service has, for five consecutive years, been named one of the 50 Best Companies for Minorities by FORTUNE magazine. In 2004, the Postal Service was ranked sixth on this list.

Every day, postal employees around the country put their own lives at risk to save the lives of the customers they serve — we call these employees "heroes". In 2004, the Postal Service recognized nearly 400 heroes

And, we’re quick, easy and convenient.

USPS.com had nearly 260 million visitors in 2004. It’s all about access. The Postal Service wants to be easily accessible and easy to do business with — whether it’s from your home, from your office or in person at our office.

The Postal Service website, usps.com, is one of the most frequently visited government sites, averaging over 21.3 million visitors every month

The Postal Store is the nation's official online Post Office, featuring sales of postage stamps and stationery, philatelic collectibles and other gift items. In 2004, stamp sales on the Postal Store exceeded $90 million and retail sales were nearly $850,000

Click-N-Ship lets customers print shipping labels with or without postage for Priority Mail, Express Mail, Global Express Guaranteed and Global Express Mail from their computers and printers

NetPost Mailing Online lets mailers create newsletters, and other correspondence and submit them, along with mailing lists, to usps.com. Electronic files are then printed, inserted into envelopes with postage, addressed, and taken to the nearest post office for mailing

NetPost CardStore lets customers create high-quality, personalized greeting cards online and have them mailed the next business day to specific address lists or back to them so the cards can be personalized. Gift cards from leading retail and restaurant chains can be included as well

Online Insurance is available for up to $200 when using Click-N-Ship

Internet Change of Address lets customers change their address, hold deliveries of their mail, sign up for long-distance phone service, order moving supplies, arrange storage, and request utility companies to stop or start service directly from their personal computers

Electronic Merchandise Return Service provides prepaid mailing labels via the Internet for convenient return of catalog and online purchases

With Carrier Pickup Online Notification, customers can go to usps.com to request package pickup at no extra charge. The Letter Carriers make the requested pickups on their routes the next delivery day

As of February 23, 2005