7\/16\/24 – Short answer…No.<\/p>\n
The group of federal laws known collectively as the Private Express Statutes gives the United States Postal Service a monopoly over the carriage of letter-mail. This monopoly predates the United States Postal Service \u2013 it predates even the United States. It was carried over from the colonial postal system, established in North America by the British before the American Revolution. But whereas the British Crown Post hoped to profit by its mail monopoly and return its profit to Great Britain, the Founding Fathers hoped to protect postal revenues to fund and expand the mail system, which they deemed as essential to nationhood.<\/p>\n
In 1777, the Continental Congress agreed that:<\/p>\n
The United States in Congress assembled shall \u2026 have the sole and exclusive right and power of \u2026 establishing and regulating post-offices from one state to another, throughout all the United States, and exacting such postage on the papers passing thro\u2019 the same as may be requisite to defray the expenses of the said office.41<\/a><\/sup><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
On October 18, 1782, the Congress of the Confederation first specifically defined the postal monopoly on the carriage of letters when it passed \u201cAn Ordinance for Regulating the Post Office of the United States of America.\u201c The ordinance restricted the \u201ccarrying and delivering of any letters, packets or despatches from any place within these United States\u201d to the Postmaster General and his deputies and agents \u201cand no other person whatsoever,\u201d except for messages carried on a “private affair” or for “public service,” on penalty of a $20 fine for each offense.42<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0At the discretion of the Postmaster General, areas with no mail service were exempt from the regulations. The 1782 ordinance also required ship captains landing in American ports to carry all letters to the Post Office \u201cif any there be at the place of his or her arrival,\u201d and granted them one-ninetieth of a dollar for this service.43<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0This law was continued after the adoption of the U.S. Constitution in 1789.<\/p>\n
U.S. Statutes continue the monopoly<\/h2>\n
On February 20, 1792, Congress enacted its first major postal law under the U.S. Constitution. The act prohibited the private transmission of any letter or packet \u201con any established post-road,\u201d as well as the establishment of any post by foot, horse, vessel, boat, or “any conveyance whatever, whereby the revenue of the general post-office may be injured.”44<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0It allowed exceptions for the carriage of newspapers and for deliveries by “special messenger,” but continued the practice of requiring the commander of any vessel entering an American port \u201cwhere a post-office is established\u201d to deliver all letters to the postmaster, except those bound for another port.45<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0Exceptions were also made for letters going to the owners of the ships and for those shipping cargo on the ships. The law persisted with only minor changes until 1825. Intervening changes of note:<\/p>\n
\n
- In addition to newspapers, in 1794 Congress allowed private delivery of magazines or pamphlets as well as delivery of letters going to the owners of vehicles carrying U.S. Mail (wagons, stagecoaches, etc.) and those shipping cargo on such vehicles.<\/li>\n
- In 1799, Congress outlawed the private carriage of \u201cany letter or packet\u201d on \u201cany road adjacent or parallel to an established post road.”46<\/a><\/sup><\/li>\n
- In 1823, Congress designated all navigable waterways as post roads, indirectly increasing the scope of the monopoly.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Under mounting financial pressure \u2013 the Post Office Department faced annual deficits every year from 1820 through 1823 \u2013 Congress attempted to secure the postal monopoly by the Act of March 3, 1825. Much of the language of the earlier law was retained, with the following notable exceptions:<\/p>\n
\n
- For the first time, owners as well as operators of vehicles transporting private letters were subject to prosecution.<\/li>\n
- Private delivery of letters to owners of mail-carrying vehicles (other than ships) was no longer permitted. However, private delivery of cargo-related letters aboard ships and other mail-carrying vehicles was still allowed.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
In the 1825 act, Congress inadvertently omitted the prohibition of private deliveries by foot or horse-post; this oversight was remedied two years later. In 1838, Congress designated all railroads as post roads, again indirectly increasing the scope of the monopoly.<\/p>\n
In the early 1840s, postal revenues were crippled by the operation of numerous private express companies in the larger eastern cities as well as by the carriage of letters by railway passengers. One senator estimated that “on the express routes, twenty letters are sent outside the mail for the one that is carried by the mail.”47<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0In 1843, Postmaster General Wickliffe stated:<\/p>\n
The General Government should either protect the department against the inroads of private posts, or provide the ways and means to meet the necessary expenses of the service.48<\/a><\/sup><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
In 1845 Congress again acted to protect postal revenues, which had not met expenses for seven years running and had experienced actual drops in three of the five preceding years. In its first official use of the term, Congress declared that \u201cit shall not be lawful \u2026 to establish any private express or expresses\u201d (emphasis added) to carry mail \u201cby regular trips, or at stated periods \u2026 to any \u2026 places the United States mail is regularly transported.\u201d49<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0The Act of March 3, 1845, reiterated that the operators and owners of vehicles \u2013 now including railroad cars \u2013 which illegally transported mail or enabled the illegal transportation of mail were liable for prosecution, but only if they had knowledge of the fact.50<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0For the first time, mailers who sent letters by private express companies or other means were also liable for prosecution. Private delivery of letters to the owners of ships was no longer permitted. Letters carried by special messenger “employed only for the single particular occasion” and mail transported free-of-charge by “private hands” were permitted.51<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0In 1852, to accommodate mailers wanting private delivery while still protecting postal revenue, Congress also allowed for the private carriage of letters in prepaid stamped envelopes, provided the envelopes were sealed and marked with the date; in 1864 Congress allowed the Postmaster General to \u201csuspend the operation\u201d of all or part of this rule on any mail route if it was in the public interest to do so (i.e. if it harmed postal revenue).52<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n
In 1872 Congress specified that ships not only had to surrender letters and packets to the Post Office upon arriving in U.S. ports, but also that ships could receive letters and packets only from the Post Office prior to departing for foreign ports. At the same time, Congress extended the letter-mail monopoly to \u201cany post-route which is or may be established by law\u201d to account for new delivery routes being established in cities.53<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n
The statutes were recodified in 1909 with minor changes: an exemption for letters relating to “the current business of the carrier;” imprisonment as an optional penalty for breaking the law, instead of, or in addition to, a fine; and stiff fines and\/or imprisonment for using misleading terms like \u201cPost Office\u201d or \u201cUnited States Mail\u201d in association with private businesses not actually connected with the U.S. Mail.54<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n
On January 2, 1934, the Postmaster General ordered that only U.S. Mail could be put into private mailboxes; on May 7, 1934, Congress approved a fine for anyone violating the order.55<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0Also in 1934, private delivery by special messenger was limited to deliveries of no more than 25 letters.<\/p>\n
The final recodification of the Private Express Statutes in 1948 again involved only minor changes. Since then, interpretation of the statutes has been achieved primarily through the exercise of administrative jurisdiction.<\/p>\n
Interpretation of the Private Express Statutes<\/h2>\n
From 1934 through 1967, the Post Office Department published a series of eight pamphlets on the Private Express statutes \u2013 initially titled\u00a0The Private Express Statutes<\/i>, and later\u00a0Restrictions on Transportation of Letters: The Private Express Statutes and Interpretations<\/i>\u00a0\u2013 which set forth the laws and offered the Department’s interpretation of them based on administrative and judicial decisions. Significantly, the pamphlets helped define the scope of the monopoly by defining the term \u201cletter\u201d:<\/p>\n
Where matter in fact constitutes a message from the sender to the addressee for the purpose of informing the addressee concerning any particular transaction or transactions, such message is a \u201cletter\u201d within the meaning of the private express statutes. Thus, the substance and not the form is determinative. Whether the message is sent in English, in a foreign language, by code, or by system of checking from a list of printed statements, or punching holes, or point print, or raised characters used by the blind, the message is construed to be a “letter.\u201d<\/p>\n
A \u201cletter\u201d is a message, notice, or other expression of thought sent by one person to another. It is just as much a letter if sent in an envelope from one to another unsealed as if sealed, or whether in an envelope at all, if it is directed as a letter.<\/p>\n
If matter conveys live, individual current information between the sender and the addressee, upon which the latter may act, rely or refrain from acting, such matter is a \u201cletter\u201d within the meaning of the private express statutes.56<\/a><\/sup><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Some examples of letters were: account statements, daily bulletins, orders to be filled, applications, water bills, circulars. The 1934 edition of the pamphlet also enumerated material not considered letters \u2013 checks, bank notes, bank drafts, and financial records not bearing “live, current information” \u2013 and material considered outside the “letter or spirit” of the monopoly \u2013 duplicate copies of letters, “commercial papers” (for example, legal documents, contracts, mortgages, blueprints, maps, and stock certificates), insurance policies, and copy sent to publishers.57<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n
As the Department fine-tuned what it considered a “letter” for the purpose of the monopoly, the pamphlet increased in size from 17 to 28 pages. Beginning in 1952, it contained an index as well as the admission “it is obvious that all the forms which letters may take cannot be enumerated in this pamphlet.”58<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0Among the examples of letters and non-letters cited by the Department in the various editions were:<\/p>\n
\n
- 1937:<\/dt>\n
- \n
Letters:<\/strong>\u00a0bank statements<\/p>\n
Not letters or exempt:<\/strong>\u00a0old correspondence and records, meter books or readings (mailed from local to central office for the purpose of preparing customer statements); advertising handbills or circulars<\/p>\n<\/dd>\n
- 1940:<\/dt>\n
- \n
Letters:<\/strong>\u00a0checks with detachable stubs; interoffice communications between main offices and branch offices<\/p>\n
Not letters or exempt:<\/strong>: unaddressed advertising handbills or circulars<\/p>\n
Further clarification:<\/strong><\/p>\n
\n
- \u201cWhere there is no free delivery of mail in a town, the streets of same are not post routes, and letters originating there may be delivered over such streets by any method without the payment of postage.\u201d59<\/a><\/sup><\/li>\n
- \u201cA \u2018letter\u2019 \u2026 must be addressed to or intended for some particular person or concern.\u201d60<\/a><\/sup><\/li>\n
- To qualify for the \u201cletters of a carrier\u201d exemption, the carrier must be a regular salaried employee with all the privileges of other employees.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/dd>\n
- 1952:<\/dt>\n
- Not letters or exempt<\/strong>\u00a0– official records like birth certificates; \u201ca picture or other visual representation of a physical thing\u201d (like drawings, maps, and blueprints); matter sent for filing or storage only; matter sent for auditing on behalf of the sender; examinations sent to a scoring agency\u00a061<\/a><\/sup><\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
The United States Postal Service and the Private Express Statutes<\/h2>\n
Upon the creation of the United States Postal Service through the Postal Reorganization Act of 1970, the Private Express Statutes were readopted with only minor revisions. However, citing “advances in communications technology, data processing, and the needs of mail users,” Congress required the newly created Board of Governors to submit a “report and recommendation for the modernization” of the Private Express laws within two years of the effective date of the Reorganization Act.62<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n
On June 29, 1973, the Board of Governors submitted a report to Congress recommending that the letter-mail monopoly be retained to ensure universal mail service but that the administrative practices and regulations be improved and clarified. The Governors also recommended that the restrictions of the Private Express Statutes be suspended for certain types of mail when 12-hour or next-morning delivery was required, until such time as the Postal Service was widely able to provide such service.63<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0The Board of Governors also called for the Postal Service to publish proposed regulations \u201cwell in advance of their planned adoption\u201d to allow time for public comment.64<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0Accordingly, the Postal Service publishes notices of proposed rules in the Federal Register, and after analyzing any feedback and making any changes, it publishes final rules in the \u201cRules and Regulations\u201d section of the Federal Register. Any changes are then incorporated into the annual publication of the Code of Federal Regulations.<\/p>\n
In 1974, the Postal Service published the following changes in the regulations:<\/p>\n
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- A letter was redefined from a message in writing in any language or code to a “message directed to a specific person or address and recorded in or on a tangible object.”65<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0The “live, current\u201d information test was eliminated for defining a letter. A number of materials were specifically exempted from this definition, including: identical letters sent in bulk to a single address (such as from a stationery supplier to someone who will then use them as his own communication); checks and other commercial papers; legal papers and documents; newspapers, periodicals, catalogs, and telephone directories; and matter sent for filing or storage.<\/li>\n
- The prohibition of private delivery of data processing materials to data processing centers was suspended if urgent delivery was required (within 12 hours or by noon of the next day). Carriers were required to notify the Postal Service beforehand of areas to be served under this suspension.<\/li>\n
- The Postal Service reserved the right to collect any postage lost through violation of the Private Express Statutes.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
In 1979, under pressure from mailers, competitors, and some members of Congress, the Postal Service suspended the prohibition of private delivery of extremely urgent letters.66<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0Letters were considered to be extremely urgent if they met strict delivery standards or if their postage cost the greater of either twice the going First-Class or “priority mail” rate or at least three dollars.67<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0The regulations were also amended to clarify the terms \u201cletter,\u201d “packet,” “person,” and “identical printed letters.\u201d68<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n
In 1980, the regulations were amended as follows:<\/p>\n
\n
- by removing certain restrictions from the existing exemption for matter shipped by a printer to a person using such matter as his letters;<\/li>\n
- by further defining \u201cletter,\u201d \u201cbook\u201d or \u201ccatalog\u201d under the existing exemptions, as well as providing an exemption for advertisements accompanying addressed material or periodicals; and,<\/li>\n
- by allowing private carriage of letters with prepaid postage other than by means previously established, provided that these alternative means were specified in a written agreement with the Postal Service.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
The last major change came on September 19, 1986, when, at the urging of American businesses and at the direct request of President Ronald Reagan, the Postal Service exempted international remailing from the postal monopoly. The new rule allowed \u201cthe uninterrupted carriage of letters from a point within the United States to a foreign country for deposit in its domestic or international mails for delivery to an ultimate destination outside the United States.\u201d69<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0In so doing, the Postal Service acknowledged that not only did international remailing save American businesses time and money in getting documents overseas, but that without such savings some businesses might not be able to compete in foreign markets.<\/p>\n
Cutting service to control costs<\/h2>\n
Throughout history, Congress has strived to balance two ideals: that the Post Office should serve all Americans, and that the revenues of the Post Office should pay for its expenses. The shoring up of the letter-mail monopoly in 1825 and 1845 to protect postal revenue was one tool Congress used to help the Post Office Department balance its budget. But despite the protection offered by the Private Express Statutes, the postal needs of the developing nation and the heavy demands placed on the Post Office Department put the principles of universal service and self-finance into conflict time and again, forcing compromise. At times, the Post Office Department cut service and stifled growth to rein in expenses; frequently Congress dipped into the Treasury to pay for mail service.<\/p>\n
The views of the Postmasters General on expanding versus cutting service as they wrestled with tight budgets swung back and forth like a pendulum. In 1825, Postmaster General John McLean advocated discontinuing \u201cunproductive\u201d mail routes. In the 1830s and 1840s, service was cut on some routes and post road mileage was reduced in some years to save money.70<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0Postmaster General Joseph Holt (1859-1861) \u201cunhesitatingly lopped off\u201d mail routes judged to be \u201cuseless\u201d and reduced service wherever possible on \u201cunproductive\u201d routes.71<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n
The Civil War temporarily balanced the postal budget by suspending expensive, unprofitable mail service in the South while increasing mail volume in the North. Alexander W. Randall, the first Postmaster General appointed after the war, thought it absurd to believe that the Post Office Department could be self-sustaining while the country was still developing. He pointed out that, historically, most southern mail routes and nearly all the routes west of the Mississippi River never returned a profit, but he would no sooner discontinue them than end free city delivery or discontinue railway mail service, which also yielded no clear financial return. Randall thought that \u201ca halting, timid, illiberal policy\u201d would \u201csave one million and lose twenty.\u201d72<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n
The Post Office Department operated in the red nearly every year from 1866 through 1910. Congress directed postal policy, often in ways that were politically expedient and not necessarily of universal benefit. Most contentiously, Congress gave itself free mailing privileges, which helped representatives keep in touch with each other and their constituents but also burdened mailbags with tons of mail that yielded no revenue.73<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0Cheap newspaper postage also stressed the system, as did contract terms that subsidized transportation providers.<\/p>\n
In December 1909, to try to balance the federal budget, President William H. Taft ordered all department heads to cut their budget requests \u201cto the quick,\u201d making them \u201cas low as possible consistent with imperative governmental necessity.\u201d74<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0Postmaster General Frank H. Hitchcock immediately began cutting back on the establishment of new rural delivery routes, one of the costliest services. The Post Office Department created only one-third as many new rural routes in 1910 as compared to 1909.75<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0Further measures were taken in later years. Between 1916 and 1919, railroad mail route mileage was reduced by 22.7 percent, in some cases delaying mail delivery by more than a week.76<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0To save money in 1923, the number of daily residential deliveries in many cities was cut from four to three, and in 1930, from three to two. For a few months in 1934, some residential areas received only one delivery a day, and this was made permanent in 1950.77<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n
The Postal Reorganization Act of 1970 gave the United States Postal Service the freedom to make many \u2013 but not all \u2013 of its own business decisions. Some of the most important decisions \u2013 rate-setting and labor negotiations, affecting its greatest source of revenue and its greatest expense \u2013 were still largely decided externally. Rates were set by the Postal Rate Commission (now called the Postal Regulatory Commission) and the independent Governors of the Postal Service, and if postal management and employee unions could not agree on contract terms, the terms were decided by a third-party arbitration panel.<\/p>\n
In addition to being challenged by a lack of managerial autonomy, the Postal Service faced increasing competition, both indirect and direct, for its core service \u2013 delivering the mail. Media such as telephones, television, faxes, the Internet, and email increasingly provide alternatives to hard-copy mail. In 1979, the Postal Service surrendered part of its letter-mail monopoly (for \u201cextremely urgent\u201d letters), opening itself up to competition in the delivery of First-Class Mail, its most profitable segment. From 1980 to 1990, the Postal Service\u2019s share of the expedited mail market dropped from an estimated 33 to 12 percent.78<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n
To help balance its budget, the Postal Service has focused on developing automated mail-processing equipment to help control labor costs, its greatest expense. But the Postal Service also has occasionally reduced services. From February to September of 1988, it cut window service at postal facilities by about a half-day per week, to save money. In 2002, it began aggressively culling under-performing collection boxes from city streets, saving fuel and labor but making it harder for customers to find the iconic blue boxes. (See Table 7: \u201cNumber of Collection Boxes, 1985 to 2005.\u201d)<\/p>\n
\n\n\n\n
\n \nYear<\/th>\n Number of Collection Boxes<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n \n 1985<\/td>\n 395,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 1990<\/td>\n 281,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 1995<\/td>\n 336,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 2000<\/td>\n 365,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 2005<\/td>\n 345,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div> Table 7: Number of Collection Boxes, 1985 to 2005<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n Source: Postal Statistics, Universal Postal Union (published annually)<\/p>\n
Some customers also perceive the increased use of neighborhood cluster boxes as a decline in service, since some residents have to walk farther than their curb to check for mail. On the other hand, the Postal Service greatly increased access for customers in the 1990s with the launch of its public Web site, usps.com. Today, customers can buy stamps, look up ZIP Codes, calculate postage rates, learn about services, confirm package delivery, change their address, ask to have their mail held, print shipping labels, pay for postage, request free package pickup, and even design advertising mail pieces online.<\/p>\n
One cost-cutting measure the Postal Service has not implemented to any large degree is closing small, unprofitable Post Offices. The United States Government Accountability Office (GAO, formerly called the United States General Accounting Office) has repeatedly advised that the Postal Service could save millions of dollars annually but still adequately serve rural customers by replacing thousands of small, money-losing Post Offices with alternative services like contract offices or rural delivery routes. In 1982, for example, the GAO estimated that about $106.7 million annually could be saved by closing around 5,000 one-person Post Offices that provided no home delivery.79<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0But instead of thousands, the Postal Service has closed, on average, fewer than 150 Post Offices each year.80<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n
Ensuring the future of universal mail service<\/h2>\n
\n\u201cThe Private Express Statutes do not exist to protect the Postal Service. They exist to protect the mailing public.\u201d<\/p>\n