The Postal Service is always striving to increase the impact, excitement and value of mail. We’ve always embraced new technologies and innovation. We’re firmly focused on improving the mailing experience.
People, machines, vehicles, technology — it’s an impressive feat to get that card from grandma or that package from your favorite online store to your doorstep.
25,000 packages/hour
The Enhanced Package Processing System (EPPS), sorts 25,000 packages per hour.
delivery unit sorter
The Automated Delivery Unit Sorter (ADUS) automates the sorting of smaller packages - up to 30 pounds - at a rate of 3,400 pieces per hour with a sort accuracy of 99.95 percent.
BROKER
Label Broker. This service is easy! It solves the ever-increasing problem of customers conducting business online and not being able to print shipping labels. With Label Broker, customers can get a shipping label on their mobile device, in the form of a QR code, directly from the merchant.
The customer uses the code to print a label at a Post Office or on a printer connected to usps.com. Label Broker is also the foundational technology that has enabled USPS Operation Santa to expand and evolve in a digital format.
For more information, go to www.usps.com/business/label-broker.htm
miles driven in 2021
To move mail using surface transportation, the Postal Service drove more than 2.07 billion miles in 2021 — more than 45,000 trips in more than 25,000 box trucks and tractor-trailers daily.
The Postal Service operates hundreds of mail processing and distribution centers / plants across the country. The employees in these facilities accept, sort and dispatch the nations mail.
external email messages
In 2021, the Postal Service email gateway system delivered more than 5 billion external email messages annually to postal customers and business partners. The majority of these were automated messages from Informed Delivery, Click-N-Ship and Package Tracking applications.
emails blocked monthly
More than 38 million emails received from external senders were blocked monthly in 2021 to ensure the safety of the Postal network.
petabytes of storage
The Postal Service has 92.5 petabytes of storage capacity — equivalent to playing more than 234,177 years of songs on an MP3 player, with no repeats.
driven
The Postal Service uses data not only to ensure its operations run smoothly, but also to help businesses make better use of the mail. Its mission is to provide the right information to the right people in real time using advanced technology.
enabled
The Postal Service uses a vast network of people and advanced technologies to collect, process, transport and accurately deliver the nation’s mail in an increasingly digital world.
the best
Patently the best. The United States Patent and Trademark Office has issued more than 500 patents to the United States Postal Service.
trademarks
Leaving a mark! The Postal Service has 385 domestic and 1,000 foreign trademark registrations.
of our domains
The Postal Service owns 1,884 internet domains
Seamless mail pieces
The Seamless Acceptance program automates the payment verification of commercial mailings by leveraging electronic documentation (eDoc), Intelligent Mail barcodes and information collected from both handheld sampling devices and mail processing equipment scans. In FY21, the Postal Service handled 8 billion mail pieces from 1,873 mailers under Seamless Acceptance and collected $2.6 million in postage.
eInduction mailers
The eInduction process simplifies mail induction by leveraging eDoc, Intelligent Mail container barcodes and handheld scanner technologies to verify the payment and preparation of commercial mail containers. In FY21, 1,078 mailers took advantage of eInduction.
EPS revenue
The Enterprise Payment System (EPS) allows customers to pay for and manage their use of Postal Service products and services online, using an integrated single payment account. In FY21, EPS collected $27.6 billion in revenue, which is a 28 percent increase over FY20.
eVS revenue
The Electronic Verification System (eVS) allows high-volume package mailers and package consolidators to document and pay for postage, including extra service fees, using electronic manifest files. In FY21, eVS processed 4.7 billion packages from 4,084 customers and collected $14.7 billion in revenue, representing a 16 percent increase in revenue over FY20.
in short-paid revenue
The Automated Package Verification (APV) program automates the detection and collection of postage due for mail pieces with insufficient postage using automated package processing equipment. The APV program collected $158.3 million in short-paid revenue and saved more than $202.7 million from being short-paid postage in FY21.
deciphering
You call that scribble legible? Employees at the Remote Encoding Center in Salt Lake City, UT, are responsible for deciphering terribly handwritten or shoddily printed addresses.
printing technology
In 2021, the Postal Service released several stamps that highlighted stamp printing technologies.
At Work
The daily operations performed by the Postal Service depend on an astonishing network of people and technologies that collect, transport, process and deliver the nation’s mail.
The daily operations performed by the Postal Service depend on an astonishing network of people and technologies that collect, transport, process and deliver the nation’s mail.
The Postal Service operates more than 8,500 pieces of automated equipment that processes and sorts nearly half the world’s mail.
million trays
Tray sorting machines sort more than 18 million trays per day through conveyor systems.
of processing equipment
The Postal Service operates more than 8,500 pieces of automated equipment that processes and sorts nearly half the world’s mail.
Mobile Delivery Devices
Mobile Delivery Devices (MDDs) provide real-time scanning for daily delivery operations. There are more than 260,000 MDDs in use nationwide.
point-of-sale terminals
The Postal Service maintains 44,151 point-of-sale terminals, 2,706 self-service retail kiosks, 6,608 mobile point-of-sale handheld devices, and 1,431 business partner retail locations nationwide.
postage stamp
Out of this world! A postage stamp was inside the New Horizons spacecraft that made a flyby of Pluto in July 2015. That's the farthest distance traveled by a postage stamp - more than 3 billion miles. So noted by the Guinness World Records.
USPS and mailers
Postal Customer Councils (PCCs). These Postal Service-affiliated networks connect business mailers with local Post Office leadership to develop more effective and profitable mailings through training and information sharing. Since the 1960s, PCCs have been the go-to local resource for helping mailers learn, innovate and build their business. More information can be found at postalpro.usps.com/pcc.
Find more information at postalpro.usps.com/pcc.
providing technical advice
Postmaster General’s Mailers Technical Advisory Committee (MTAC). Representing select mailing associations, this group works to enhance the value of mail by providing technical advice and recommendations to the Postal Service. More information can be found at postalpro.usps.com/mtac.
stamps postmarked per hour
The Advanced Facer Canceller System positions letter mail and postmarks stamps at 36,000 pieces per hour.
The daily operations performed by the Postal Service depend on an astonishing network of people and technologies that collect, transport, process and deliver the nation’s mail.
miles of conveyors
The Postal Service is one of the largest material-handling systems in the world for moving mail. There are more than 200 miles of conveyors within postal facilities.
character recognition
The Postal Service is the world leader in optical character recognition technology, with machines reading nearly 98 percent of all hand-addressed letters and 99.5 percent of machine-printed mail.
Intelligent Mail
A unique Intelligent Mail barcode identifies individual pieces of mail, trays, sacks and containers to track them through the postal processing system from induction to delivery.
nearly $4B in revenue
Every Door Direct Mail - EDDM - is an online service that uses demographic data to help business mailers target their marketing mail pieces to customers in a select neighborhood, city or ZIP Code. Since 2011, EDDM has resulted in more than 26 billion pieces of mail and $3.8 billion in revenue.
The USPS Printer Directory provides customers free access to local print, design and mail preparation services for Every Door Direct Mail and other direct mail products through a searchable database and mapping program. More than 700 listings populate the directory that serves small and medium-size businesses nationwide.
Informed Delivery Customers
With Informed Delivery service, you can digitally preview your incoming mail and manage your packages from a computer, tablet or mobile device. More than 44 million customers have enrolled since it was launched in 2017.
Informed Delivery provides eligible residential customers with a digital preview of their household’s incoming mail scheduled to arrive soon. Users can view greyscale images of the exterior, address side of incoming letter-sized mail pieces (not the inside contents) via email or an online dashboard.
Informed Delivery also allows customers to track packages delivered by the Postal Service and see when they will be delivered.
For more information and to sign up, go to usps.com/informeddelivery.
handheld scanners
Our communications network supports and maintains more than 140,000 desktop computers, 50,000 notebook computers, 56,080 printers, 32,087 smartphones, 125,630 phone lines and 443,701 handheld scanners.
The Postal Service has one of the world’s largest computer networks — linking more than 31,000 facilities and connecting hundreds of thousands of employees and hundreds of systems.
There are 622 remote locations within the postal system that receive network connectivity via satellite.
USPS has 92.5 petabytes of storage capacity — equivalent to playing more than 234,177 years of songs with no repeats.
More than 169,623 meetings per month are hosted online, representing more than 62.2 million minutes of conference time.
robotics systems
The Postal Service has the largest gantry robotic fleet in the world using 165 robotics systems to move 300,000 mail trays per day.
Trademarks
Trademarks
The Eagle Logo, the trade dress of USPS packaging, the Letter Carrier Uniform and the Postal Truck and the following marks are among the many trademarks owned by the United States Postal Service: Click-N-Ship®, Deliver The Win®, EDDM®, ePostage®, Every Door Direct Mail®, Express Mail®, First-Class™, First-Class Mail®, First-Class Package International Service®, Forever®, Global Express Guaranteed®, IMb®, Informed Delivery®, Intelligent Mail®, Label Broker™, Parcel Select®, P.O. Box™, Post Office®, Pony Express®, Postal Inspection Service™, PostalOne!®, Postal Police®, PostalProud®, Priority Mail Express International®, Priority Mail Flat Rate®, Priority Mail International®, Priority: You®, Registered Mail™, Standard Mail®, The Postal Store®, United States Postal Inspection Service®, United States Postal Service®, U.S. Mail®, U.S. Postal Inspector™, U.S. Postal Service®, USPS®, USPS BlueEarth®, USPS Mobile®, USPS Operation Santa®, USPS Tracking®, usps.com®, We are people delivering to people™, ZIP+4® and ZIP Code™. This is not a comprehensive list of all Postal Service trademarks.
Non-Postal Trademarks
Dollar General®, Forest Stewardship Council®, McDonald’s®, National Dog Bite Prevention Week®, Starbucks®, Subway®, Sustainable Forestry Initiative®, The Climate Registry®.
Postal Facts 2022 provides the public with information about the U.S. Postal Service. The facts in this publication may be reproduced for the purpose of stating the fact itself, and in a business, informational or academic context and the like, and in the body of text discussing factual subject matter relevant to the fact being presented. However, these facts may become outdated after publication and seeking the latest information is advised.
Produced by U.S. Postal Service Corporate Communications
© 2022 United States Postal Service. All rights reserved.
© 2016-2022 United States Postal Service. All rights reserved.
Trademarks
Trademarks
The Eagle Logo, the trade dress of USPS packaging, the Letter Carrier Uniform and the Postal Truck and the following marks are among the many trademarks owned by the United States Postal Service: Click-N-Ship®, Deliver The Win®, EDDM®, ePostage®, Every Door Direct Mail®, Express Mail®, First-Class™, First-Class Mail®, First-Class Package International Service®, Forever®, Global Express Guaranteed®, IMb®, Informed Delivery®, Intelligent Mail®, Label Broker™, Parcel Select®, P.O. Box™, Post Office®, Pony Express®, Postal Inspection Service™, PostalOne!®, Postal Police®, PostalProud®, Priority Mail Express International®, Priority Mail Flat Rate®, Priority Mail International®, Priority: You®, Registered Mail™, Standard Mail®, The Postal Store®, United States Postal Inspection Service®, United States Postal Service®, U.S. Mail®, U.S. Postal Inspector™, U.S. Postal Service®, USPS®, USPS BlueEarth®, USPS Mobile®, USPS Operation Santa®, USPS Tracking®, usps.com®, We are people delivering to people™, ZIP+4® and ZIP Code™. This is not a comprehensive list of all Postal Service trademarks.
Non-Postal Trademarks
Dollar General®, Forest Stewardship Council®, McDonald’s®, National Dog Bite Prevention Week®, Starbucks®, Subway®, Sustainable Forestry Initiative®, The Climate Registry®.
Postal Facts 2022 provides the public with information about the U.S. Postal Service. The facts in this publication may be reproduced for the purpose of stating the fact itself, and in a business, informational or academic context and the like, and in the body of text discussing factual subject matter relevant to the fact being presented. However, these facts may become outdated after publication and seeking the latest information is advised.
Produced by U.S. Postal Service Corporate Communications
© 2022 United States Postal Service. All rights reserved.
© 2016-2022 United States Postal Service. All rights reserved.
