Postal Service And Congress - A Lesson In The Tying Of Hands

Political Realities ^ | 02/07/13 | LD Jackson

[muawiyah]

’ tis a mystery ~ but where would they get the money?

[muawiyah]

(/s)

[cripplecreek]

The problem with your story is that UPS is prohibited by law from delivering a 1st class letter, so claiming to know what they would charge is a little self serving.

Bull. I can send a letter by way of UPS if I wish. The only difference is that I can't put a 46 cent stamp on it and expect them to deliver it. I can buy their envelope and pay their price and they'll deliver it. The first class designation comes with the USPS stamp.

[Mr. Lucky]

You're mistaken.

For a quick education, search Wikipedia for "Private Express Statutes". Their treatment is a reasonably accurate summary of the laws prohibiting direct competition with the Post Office (which includes the delivery of letters which are not "extremely urgent")

[Mr. Lucky]

You're mistaken.

For a quick education, search Wikipedia for "Private Express Statutes". Their treatment is a reasonably accurate summary of the laws prohibiting direct competition with the Post Office (which includes the delivery of letters which are not "extremely urgent")

[cripplecreek]

LOL OK whatever. I just hope no one ever opens a UPS envelope and discovers all the criminal activity going on.

[muawiyah]

There are several lawyers in America who spend their days pondering the exegesis of the Private Express Statutes. I've met all of them personally at one time or another.

In the good old days, back before USPS, if you wanted to engage in private carriage of mail ~ all you had to do was place the proper postage on a piece, cancel it, then carry it.

Well, you might ask, who would do that?

Company headquarters might consolidate company mail and provide it secure transportation to their own distant facilities. Airlines would take their own, and other common carrier's paperwork regarding flight plans, and haul it around to and from FAA field offices. There was a big business in this practice with railroads and trucking companies.

Then, along came USPS with the promise off BETTER SERVICE, and the lawyers who specialized in Private Expres Statute interpretation and promulgation came up with the idea of raking through the debris of all that had gone before to see if there were any opportunities for new postal revenues.

Lo and behold they figured out quickly that just buying a postage stamp and canceling it didn't quite meet the standards of law regarding private carriage. It was still prohibited to anyone to carry LETTERS outside the mail without an exception ~ no matter how many stamps you had bought and canceled.

So, they pounced on all the usual suspects.

The then only existing exceptions were the Clearing House Banks who arranged to haul deposited checks around to match them up with bank accounts on which they'd been drawn and bank accounts to which they'd been directed. That exception was written into law ~ one of the parts that hadn't been looked at in years.

That meant no one else had an exception unless they were granted one by whoever it was exercised the 'post offices' clause of the Constitution at the time ~ and that was a person called "The postmaster general'.

The first couple of USPS postmasters general weren't terribly interested in this but Bill Bolger was ~ a long time postal insider he knew this stuff. One thing led to the next and PMG Bolger decided to ENFORCE the Private Express Statutes while granting an exception to folks who paid at least $10 on a piece of letter mail to be carried outside the mails.

The old system passed away at a glance. It wasn't for several years anyone even realized the Domestic Mail Manual was not correct on the matter ~