2025 marks the 250th anniversary of the Postal Service. In a sea of articles about the history of America’s Postal Service, I’m going to take a different slant and focus on how the Postal Service has been built over the decades through partnerships with the mailing industry. But first, some basic history of how the USPS came to be…
The origins of today’s United States Postal Service began in July 1775, when the Second Continental Congress declared that a Postmaster General be appointed to what was then the United Colonies, stating that the “conveyance of letters and intelligence were essential to the cause of liberty.” But it wasn’t until 1781 when Congress ratified the Articles of Confederation – Article IX – which added to the Constitution the exclusive right and power of the “Post” over mail delivery and post offices.
In 1828, the Postmaster General was made a Cabinet member position, and the Post Office was given a mail monopoly and legislated to be self-funded. In the 1840s, postage was set based on weight and distance, with prepayment required, and the Private Express Statutes were established. The Post Office Department was established in 1872. In the 1860s, there was free city delivery of the mail by letter carriers and there were three products, with transportation awarded through contracts. In the 1890s, Rural Free Delivery (RFD) was introduced and transportation was expanded.
Now, I admit I’m skipping over many historical details of how the Postal Service came to be and how its formation and evolution recognize the value of mail delivery service in the US. I highly recommend reading more of the USPS’s history to fully understand how it evolved from its creation to present day – there are some fascinating changes that took place over the 250 years. But let’s take a look at how industry partnerships became the cornerstone of supporting and growing the postal system.
An Explosive Growth
As America grew and prospered, so did the mail. From the late 1800s through the 1960s, the use of mail by Americans and American businesses grew exponentially. The development of computers and the introduction of credit cards generated increasing volumes of First-Class Mail, and businesses increased their use of mailed advertisements and magazines. In the earliest days of catalogs -- which began as far back as 1845 with the Tiffany & Co. “Blue Book” catalog – catalogs were largely delivered by private carriers because the Post was too expensive. In 1863, “third class” advertising mail was created, and in 1872, the first Montgomery Ward catalog was mailed. From 1890 to 1930, third-class mail volume soared. By 1900, the war was behind us, population was growing, the economy was growing, and the use of mail continued to expand and grow.
By the early 1960s, however, the Post Office Department was struggling to handle what then-Postmaster General Fred Belen called “mountains of mail.” It was during this time that the Post Office Department enlisted the burgeoning mailing industry to help it improve efficiency and service and lower its costs.
Zone codes, which were used in the 1940s during World War II, were expanded to 5-digit ZIP Codes in the 1960s with the introduction of Mr. Zip. The Post Office Department introduced in 1961 the Nationwide Improved Mail Service program (NIMS), which initially focused on having mail brought in earlier in the day so the Post had longer processing times. The Post subsequently asked mailers to help market and adopt the ZIP Code, and then to more finely sort their mail – at first there was no financial benefit offered, but mailers were interested in improving service, so they assisted.
In the mid-60s, the Post Office Department introduced new communication channels with business mailers to strengthen the collaboration, with the Mailers Technical Advisory Committee (MTAC) introduced in 1965 and Postal Customer Councils (PCCs) introduced soon after, and the first National Postal Forum held in 1967.
In 1971, the Postal Reorganization Act (PRA) was passed by Congress, transforming the Post Office Department to the United States Postal Service -- a self-supporting establishment of the US government with more authority over its own operations. From the 1970s to the 2000s, mail volumes continued to grow, and the USPS’s delivery network also grew, with about 80% of its costs tied to labor. According to studies, the USPS was able to deliver 145% more mail in 2000 than in 1970 with only 22% more employees, largely due to automation and the help of the mailing industry.
Over the decades since then, the USPS-industry partnership and use of what has been called “workshare” (a public-private partnership model) continued to grow. The first workshare discount was introduced in 1976 (a one-cent discount for presorting First-Class Mail by ZIP Code), with additional discounts introduced for different types of sortation in the years following. According to a report by the USPS Office of Inspector General, workshare in 1999 alone saved the USPS $15.3 billion – nearly one quarter of its operating costs. Workshare grew to include use of 9-digit barcodes, then 11-digit barcodes, and, later, the Intelligent Mail barcode.
In the 1990s, the USPS, at the behest of the mailing industry, introduced the first transportation workshare discounts with “drop ship.” Throughout the history of the Postal Service, it has used private contractors to assist with its transportation needs – from horses to coaches to boats, trains, planes, and trucks. Today, nearly 90% of all Marketing Mail is drop ship entered (transported) by the mailing industry closer to its destination in the USPS’s network. Working collaboratively with the USPS, the mailing industry helped bring a flurry of new technologies and programs to the drop ship process, including FAST, eInduction, and a host of scanning and visibility technologies.
Working collaboratively over the years, the USPS and industry have tackled significant issues such as poor address quality, introducing solutions such as ACS, NCOA, FastForward, and later Move Update. Postage payment and mail entry are other areas where the USPS and industry have worked together to develop and implement mutually beneficial systems and processes. Mail tracking and service performance monitoring are other valuable improvements that have resulted from continued collaboration between the USPS and its industry partners.
From 2007 through 2020, hard times hit the USPS and mailing industry, from the Great Recession and its years of economic impacts to the pandemic and its devastating impacts on businesses. Mail volumes fell over 40% during this period, with some predicting that another 30% of volume will disappear in the next 10 years. When mail volumes began to fall, the USPS then began to work with the mailing industry to introduce innovations to stimulate use of the mail and response rates, ranging from repositionable sticky notes on mail pieces, Customized Market Mail, Every Door Direct Mail, and many more innovative ideas. Promotions and growth incentives were introduced and grew as a result of the USPS and industry working together to develop techniques to encourage use of mail.
Don’t Overlook the Packages
And let’s not forget the shipping side of the USPS’s business, where Parcel Post was first introduced in 1913. Before that time, six private delivery companies delivered most of America’s packages, with each serving a different geography. Once the USPS was allowed to carry packages, the volumes grew and grew, particularly when fueled by the growth in e-commerce and during the pandemic. The package delivery market has always been rife with competition, and in the 2007 Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act (PAEA), the USPS structure was changed so it could operate the parcels side of its business as Competitive Services under different regulations with fewer constraints than are in place for the market dominant mail side of the business.
Just as with the mail side of the USPS’s business, its competitive shipping side has grown through industry collaboration. As the USPS introduced more parcel products and services, an industry of intermediaries grew as well. Providers who offered easier access and use of USPS parcel products, as well as competitive rates and better customer support systems have flourished and helped the USPS significantly grow its parcel business over the years. As the USPS struggled with improving its parcel customer experience, tracking services, and payment technologies, industry partners worked with the USPS through venues such as MTAC to make recommendations around customer needs.
Everywhere you look in today’s huge and complex mailing supply chain, you see examples of the work the USPS and mailing industry have done together – tracking programs such as ADVANCE, CONFIRM, Informed Visibility; postage payment programs such as EPS (Electronic Payment System); programs to speed and improve accuracy of mail acceptance/verification such as MERLIN and Seamless Acceptance; and drop ship systems such as DSAS and FAST.
This history lesson is a clear one – the USPS of today would not exist without the strong collaboration and support from the mailing industry. From its humble beginnings in the 1880s, when the first “mail service providers” emerged, to 2023 when the mailing industry represented 7.9 million jobs and $1.9 trillion in sales revenue in the U.S. (EMA Foundation 2023 Mailing Industry Economic Job Study), the industry has worked in close partnership with the Postal Service.
If you want to learn more about the mailing industry and how it helped build today’s Postal Service, next time you are in Washington, DC, if you have not already visited the Smithsonian Postal Museum, I highly recommend it – particularly the exhibit on the mailing industry!
Kathleen J. Siviter is Asst. Executive Director of the National Association of Presort Mailers (NAPM) as well President of Postal Consulting Services Inc. (PCSi), and she has over 30 years’ experience in the postal industry. She has worked for the U.S. Postal Service, Association for Postal Commerce (PostCom), and others, as well as providing consulting services to a diverse set of clients with interest in the postal industry. She has also worked with PostalVision 2020, an initiative designed to engage stakeholders in discussions about the future of the American postal system.
This article originally appeared in the July/August, 2025 issue of Mailing Systems Technology.
