We deliver to every home and business in the United States. Every American has access to our services and pays the same postage regardless of where they live or work. We …
Process and deliver more than 213 billion pieces of mail — letters, cards, ads, bills, payments and packages — every year.
· Nearly 703 million pieces per day
· More than 29 million pieces per hour
· More than 488,000 pieces per minute
· More than 8,000 pieces per second
· Deliver mail to more than 300 million people at 146 million homes, businesses and PO Boxes in every state, city and town, and in Puerto Rico, Guam, the American Virgin Islands and American Samoa.
· Add 1.8 million new addresses each year to our delivery network — equivalent to the number of addresses in a city the size of Chicago.
· Serve more than 9 million customers daily at nearly 37,000 Post Offices.
· Have annual operating revenue of nearly $73 billion.
· Are the second-largest employer in the United States.
· Employ nearly 700,000 career employees.
· Pay nearly $2 billion in employee salaries and benefits every two weeks.
· Do not receive tax dollars for operations. We are a self-supporting agency, using the revenue from the sale of postage and products to pay expenses.
· We handle more than 46 percent of the world's card and letter mail volume — delivering more mail to more addresses to a larger geographical area than any other post in the world.
· We move mail using planes, trains, trucks, cars, boats, ferries, helicopters, bicycles, hovercrafts, subways and even mules.
· We operate the largest civilian vehicle fleet in the world with more than 216,000 vehicles driving more than 1.2 billion miles each year and using nearly 121 million gallons of fuel.
· When fuel costs increase one penny, our costs increase $8 million.
· Each letter carrier delivers an average of nearly 2,900 pieces of mail a day to more than 500 addresses.
· In 2006, we processed and delivered 25.9 billion pounds of mail — 85 million pounds per day.
· About 14 percent of the nation’s population moves every year, generating more than 45 million address changes.
· We add an average of 3,500 new deliveries every day.
· We forward more than 2 billion pieces of mail a year.
· Rural carriers drive 3.4 million miles daily to deliver to 37 million addresses.
· We issue nearly 900,000 money orders per day.
· Automated Postal Centers (APCs) are self-service kiosks that provide customers with access to the most frequently purchased postal products and services.
· Customers can purchase stamps at:
· More than 33,000 commercial retail outlets.
· 17,000 banking and credit union ATMs.
· 2,500 APCs.
· Thousands of vending machines located nationwide.
Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.
These words, inscribed at the top of the James A. Farley building in New York City, are considered to be the motto of the Postal Service. In fact, it isn't a motto at all. The phrase is the translation of an ancient Greek work of Herodotus describing the Persian system of mounted carriers, c. 500 B.C.
Source: http://www.usps.com/communications/newsroom/postalfacts.htm
