Post (6): EOTO: United States Postal Service

I believe that the United States Postal Service has made an impact in each and every one of our lives in some way from the mailmen, to the mail we receive, the mail we send out, all of the mystery packages we get, and so much more. A lot of times we don't show recognition to the people who make our lives easier each and every day.

The United States Postal Service was founded in 1971, but they started their delivery process long before. It all began in 1775 when the Continental Congress appointed Benjamin Franklin as their first Postmaster General, and he put in place a lot of the foundations of what the post office in today's time looks like. Before working for the USPS, Franklin was a postmaster general for Philadelphia, but he was soon fired for his revolutionary activities. But, before Franklin was fired, he made tremendous advancements to their systems, cutting delivery routes down from Philadelphia to New York to half of what they were accomplishing before. After being hired in 1775, he brought this same energy to the United Colonies until 1776. In 1789, President Washington appointed Samuel Osgood as the first postmaster general of the American nation. By this time there were 75 post offices in the United States.

By the 1860s, the USPS had begun the usage of stamps and had began the Pony Express. The Pony Express was a mail service that had men riding on horses delivering messages, mail, and newspapers from Missouri to California. But, this service only lasted 18 months after being abolished because communication wasn't fast enough. By 1896, rural free delivery had began. Before families from rural farms had to come pick up their mail themselves or pay private carriers themselves, but this changed that and gave them mailmen. Scheduled airmail service began, residential deliveries reduced to one day, express Mail® began experimentally, and zip codes were inaugurated all by 1970. 

The United States Postal Service began officially operating in 1971. This was a government owned company, expected to bring in revenue on its own. For decades after this the USPS worked just fine, and by the 1990s they started steadily turning a profit. By 1994, the USPS had opened the National Postal Museum, and they launched their first Internet site. Everything was going good for the USPS, until more people started getting a hold of computers and they started using email more than sending physical mail, dropping the USPS's profit margin by 34 percent. But, by 2009 the USPS revealed their first free iPhone app, which helped their ratings a lot allowing receivers to check the progress of their packages, and the people really loved that.

But, still this was not enough, in 2012 the USPS began to default on the retirement benefit payments, they found that this was their only option. Now, their mail services are plummeting due to the coronavirus, and they don't know if they have enough money to make it through with full operation. According to the National Geographic, there has been a lot of talk about the outcome of the USPS, but nobody officially knows what is going to happen, but we just hope for the best, for all the employees and employers.