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Not entirely true. Many post office offer street addressing as an option for your PO box. All you need to do is sign an agreement for it work. I find a USPS PO box a better option than a private PO box because I like to go to one place to get all my mail and some items cannot be delivered to a private PO box.

You can get day-old chicks thru the post office. Your friend's bees are listed at the top of that same page.

Sorry, but no. There is no requirement for letter-class mail to be paper nor be bendable.

http://pe.usps.gov/text/dmm300/101.htm#1039555

Nah, zip+4 plus delivery point. That guarantees uniqueness. If you're curious what your actual delivery point is you can find a piece of barcoded mail (companies typically do this to save on postal rates) and run the Intelligent Mail Barcode through the RIBBS decoder. The last two digits of the 11 digit "Delivery Point Zipcode" are the delivery point value assigned to your unique address by the USPS. Every residence is supposed to be able to be found via zip+4+dp for a unique 11-digit code.

This mail service provider even delivers physical objects.

>>>USPS is not a government shipping service

Then how come it has a *.gov web address? http://www.usps.gov/ It's also mandated by the Constitution for the government to provide the mail service. USPS is as wholly part of the government as Amtrak or TSA.

For more residential areas, the 6th and 7th digits represent the "carrier route" number, in other words it indicates which individual postal worker is actually hauling out the mail. In those cases, the 8th & 9th digits are usually block numbers in that route, or major postal stops in the case of larger commercial customers or an apartment complex.

Counterexample: I live in a loft in an industrial ZIP code, and since there are very few residential customers in my ZIP, digits 6 and 7 of my +4 are the eLOT sequence for my address, and digits 8 and 9 are the floor number of my unit in the building.

Even though there is no need for special machine codes for typical personal mail, they have them anyway to reduce the amount of computing that has to be done to process the mail, and continue to develop and refine their standarda.

Unfortunately some of the people who have forgotten are those who pushed the conversion to all mail-in voting, with postage required by the voter. Sure, it's a small tax, but it's going up almost every year, will matter for some group of people, and is a speed-bump in the road to voting.

Absentee ballots require no postage. The catch is that you must drop it off at a post office.

In Canada mail to and from Members of Parliament and other key government official are completely postage free. You can drop the mail off at any mailbox. So it's a natural extension that all ballots are postage free as well. I'm extremely surprised to discover that this is not the case in US. You must pay the government in order to contact the government by mail? Huh?

Making all political mail and ballots postage free (without going through the post office) is probably pocket change to the USPS.

http://pe.usps.gov/text/qsg300/Q370.htm The standards are there if you look

First off, why do you think 99% are screwed? do you think the small percent rise in stamps is that onerous?

I admit, the 99% number was made up. It's actually "only" 79.219% being screwed. They're being screwed because the government mandates that they subsidize mail delivery costs for the other 21%. 79% of the population is paying more money on behalf of the other 21%. How can are they not being screwed?

and it's not just small towns, it's also distances. How much does it cost to fed-ex a letter ? I just checked, and to gt a letter send from Oregon to New York via fed-ex is over 16 dollars and it will be there in 5 days. Slower and many times more expensive.

I don't believe you. According to the FedEx website it's only $10.22 to ship a 5 pound package from Seattle to New York in 5 days. It's also a guaranteed 5 day delivery time, which the post office isn't going to give you for a regular letter. For reference, the USPS offers 7-day delivery of a 5 pound package for $4.90, calculated here. It's cheaper, but it's being subsidized by the millions of people who have to pay too much for postage.

Besides that, you're not really getting the point. If Fedex doesn't charge noticeably more than the USPS the government would say they were competing with the PS and impose a huge fine against them. The only exception is for "extremely urgent" packages, which is why FedEx's longest standard delivery time is 5 only days, and why they're so popular for shipping things on a tight schedule.

The post office is far more efficient then pretty much every private corporation.

Then it's fucking asinine that we waste money enforcing their monopoly, because they'd just beat out their competitors anyway, right?

We already to do a greater degree than most realize. Sure, there's HIPAA and others for data security that many folks know about. But there are other regulations on data quality, such as the U.S. postal service requiring a certain standard of data hygiene, called CASS certification, in order to do bulk mailings.

The shipping api is down, however the rate calculator is available. We provide the rate calculation engine to the folks that provide the shipping api. The shipping api offers numerous services and we are just one of them.

If you require domestic rates calculations, as received by ShippingAPI.dll, you can access our rate engine directly.

Accessing the rate calculator api is very similiar to how you access this functionality from the shipping api.

Getting started:

A simple demo site that will allow you to learn/test a subset the API:
http://postcalc.usps.gov/domSDK/sdkdemo.htm [usps.gov]

For programmatic access use the XML over HTTP Application:
http://postcalc.usps.gov/SdkXml.aspx

Documentation is available but I do not have a publically available site to post this on. If a site is available, just let me know and I will post the SDK documentation there.

For web site access:
Domestic Retail - http://postcalc.usps.gov/
International Retail - http://ircalc.usps.gov/
Domestic Business - http://dbcalc.usps.gov/

Let me know if I can help.

Adrian Griffith
ManTech Information Systems & Technology
Project Manager, USPS Postal Explorer and Rate Calculators

adrian.griffith@mantech.com

The shipping api is down, however the rate calculator is available. We provide the rate calculation engine to the folks that provide the shipping api. The shipping api offers numerous services and we are just one of them.

If you require domestic rates calculations, as received by ShippingAPI.dll, you can access our rate engine directly.

Accessing the rate calculator api is very similiar to how you access this functionality from the shipping api.

Getting started:

A simple demo site that will allow you to learn/test a subset the API:
http://postcalc.usps.gov/domSDK/sdkdemo.htm [usps.gov]

For programmatic access use the XML over HTTP Application:
http://postcalc.usps.gov/SdkXml.aspx

Documentation is available but I do not have a publically available site to post this on. If a site is available, just let me know and I will post the SDK documentation there.

For web site access:
Domestic Retail - http://postcalc.usps.gov/
International Retail - http://ircalc.usps.gov/
Domestic Business - http://dbcalc.usps.gov/

Let me know if I can help.

Adrian Griffith
ManTech Information Systems & Technology
Project Manager, USPS Postal Explorer and Rate Calculators

adrian.griffith@mantech.com

The shipping api is down, however the rate calculator is available. We provide the rate calculation engine to the folks that provide the shipping api. The shipping api offers numerous services and we are just one of them.

If you require domestic rates calculations, as received by ShippingAPI.dll, you can access our rate engine directly.

Accessing the rate calculator api is very similiar to how you access this functionality from the shipping api.

Getting started:

A simple demo site that will allow you to learn/test a subset the API:
http://postcalc.usps.gov/domSDK/sdkdemo.htm [usps.gov]

For programmatic access use the XML over HTTP Application:
http://postcalc.usps.gov/SdkXml.aspx

Documentation is available but I do not have a publically available site to post this on. If a site is available, just let me know and I will post the SDK documentation there.

For web site access:
Domestic Retail - http://postcalc.usps.gov/
International Retail - http://ircalc.usps.gov/
Domestic Business - http://dbcalc.usps.gov/

Let me know if I can help.

Adrian Griffith
ManTech Information Systems & Technology
Project Manager, USPS Postal Explorer and Rate Calculators

adrian.griffith@mantech.com

The shipping api is down, however the rate calculator is available. We provide the rate calculation engine to the folks that provide the shipping api. The shipping api offers numerous services and we are just one of them.

If you require domestic rates calculations, as received by ShippingAPI.dll, you can access our rate engine directly.

Accessing the rate calculator api is very similiar to how you access this functionality from the shipping api.

Getting started:

A simple demo site that will allow you to learn/test a subset the API:
http://postcalc.usps.gov/domSDK/sdkdemo.htm [usps.gov]

For programmatic access use the XML over HTTP Application:
http://postcalc.usps.gov/SdkXml.aspx

Documentation is available but I do not have a publically available site to post this on. If a site is available, just let me know and I will post the SDK documentation there.

For web site access:
Domestic Retail - http://postcalc.usps.gov/
International Retail - http://ircalc.usps.gov/
Domestic Business - http://dbcalc.usps.gov/

Let me know if I can help.

Adrian Griffith
ManTech Information Systems & Technology
Project Manager, USPS Postal Explorer and Rate Calculators

adrian.griffith@mantech.com

The shipping api is down, however the rate calculator is available. We provide the rate calculation engine to the folks that provide the shipping api. The shipping api offers numerous services and we are just one of them.

If you require domestic rates calculations, as received by ShippingAPI.dll, you can access our rate engine directly.

Accessing the rate calculator api is very similiar to how you access this functionality from the shipping api.

Getting started:

A simple demo site that will allow you to learn/test a subset the API:
http://postcalc.usps.gov/domSDK/sdkdemo.htm [usps.gov]

For programmatic access use the XML over HTTP Application:
http://postcalc.usps.gov/SdkXml.aspx

Documentation is available but I do not have a publically available site to post this on. If a site is available, just let me know and I will post the SDK documentation there.

For web site access:
Domestic Retail - http://postcalc.usps.gov/
International Retail - http://ircalc.usps.gov/
Domestic Business - http://dbcalc.usps.gov/

Let me know if I can help.

Adrian Griffith
ManTech Information Systems & Technology
Project Manager, USPS Postal Explorer and Rate Calculators

adrian.griffith@mantech.com

The shipping api is down, however the rate calculator is available. We provide the rate calculation engine to the folks that provide the shipping api. The shipping api offers numerous services and we are just one of them.

If you require domestic rates calculations, as received by ShippingAPI.dll, you can access our rate engine directly.

Accessing the rate calculator api is very similiar to how you access this functionality from the shipping api.

Getting started:

A simple demo site that will allow you to learn/test a subset the API:
http://postcalc.usps.gov/domSDK/SDKXMLtest.asp

XML over HTTP Application access:
http://postcalc.usps.gov/SdkXml.aspx

Documentation is available but I do not have a publically available site to post this on. If a site is available, just let me know and I will post the SDK documentation there.

Let me know if I can help.

Adrian Griffith
ManTech Information Systems & Technology
Project Manager, USPS Postal Explorer and Rate Calculators

adrian.griffith@mantech.com

The shipping api is down, however the rate calculator is available. We provide the rate calculation engine to the folks that provide the shipping api. The shipping api offers numerous services and we are just one of them.

If you require domestic rates calculations, as received by ShippingAPI.dll, you can access our rate engine directly.

Accessing the rate calculator api is very similiar to how you access this functionality from the shipping api.

Getting started:

A simple demo site that will allow you to learn/test a subset the API:
http://postcalc.usps.gov/domSDK/SDKXMLtest.asp

XML over HTTP Application access:
http://postcalc.usps.gov/SdkXml.aspx

Documentation is available but I do not have a publically available site to post this on. If a site is available, just let me know and I will post the SDK documentation there.

Let me know if I can help.

Adrian Griffith
ManTech Information Systems & Technology
Project Manager, USPS Postal Explorer and Rate Calculators

adrian.griffith@mantech.com

The US doesn't, not really. I thought that there was protection for mail entering the US, but then I found that they are allowed to search basically any "Mail Believed to Contain Dutiable or Prohibited Articles", for example, personal letters. At least domestic first class mail is still safe.

It is a good thing I think that the government is adding this extra step of security. While I will never believe anything is crack-proof, the more layers the better, and anything is better than nothing. However, for several years it seems the U.S. Post Office has been going in the wrong direction, because (and I just checked this again) when you navigate to http://www.usps.gov you are automatically redirected to http://www.usps.com. Apparently they want people to think they're a commercial business instead of a government agency. Personally I feel better using sites like irs.gov and usps.gov, because I know they are the real deal, and not some phishing site. (In general of course.)

Instead of redirecting usps.gov to usps.com, they should do the reverse and redirect usps.com to usps.gov. Just my two cents.

From what I've seen the USPS has restrictions about what they will mail. For example, good luck mailing a bottle of wine or other liquor.

We normally answer complaints on the SiteTruth blog (www.sitetruth.net), but since this was posted here...

The street address,

CoreCodec, Inc.
10 Larkspur Way
Palm Coast
Florida
USA
32137

CoreCodec, Inc.
10 Larkspur Way
Palm Coast, Florida 32137
USA

As for the SSL cert, if you connect to https://www.corecodec.com, the site sends back an SSL cert for "services.corecodec.com". Browsers complain about that. We ignore the certificate as a mismatch. That's equivalent to having no SSL cert, as far as we're concerned. There's no penalty; it's just ignored.

Send the envelope under "registered mail", since registered mail requires the envelope to be securely sealed at the time it was mailed. If it isn't sealed properly (i.e. can reopen the envelope without damaging it), it isn't registered.

See http://pe.usps.gov/text/dmm300/503.htm#2_4_6

And do you think that's strictly enforced? I don't know about US postal workers, but over here in the UK I wouldn't trust them to know a securely sealed envelope from a sheet of blank paper.

Uhm, no. You need to do your homework.

FACT: your mailbox is NOT your property! FACT: The US Postal Service has the exclusive right to take/put mail in all mailboxes.

"Mailboxes are considered federal property, and federal law (Title 18, United States Code, Section 1705), makes it a crime to vandalize them (or to injure, deface or destroy any mail deposited in them)."

"Except as excluded by 3.1.2, every letterbox or other receptacle intended or used for the receipt or delivery of mail on any city delivery route, rural delivery route, highway contract route, or other mail route is designated an authorized depository for mail within the meaning of 18 USC 1702, 1705, 1708, and 1725."

http://www.usps.com/postalinspectors/tipvandl.htm
http://pe.usps.gov/text/dmm300/508.htm

USPS of course, via Global Priority Mail - Variable Weight (Single). http://ircalc.usps.gov/intl_speed.asp?SD=yes&CID=1 0054&MailType=package&Pounds=1&Ounces=0 Instead they insist on super ultimate high priority hand delivered by god at $30 an ounce to ship. Some people seem to think that people completely ignore the price of shipping when they buy something. "I got that $30 item for $10 who cares if it cost me $40 to ship it". If after I pay shipping, it isn't a minimum 20% cheaper than I can get it from a retail store, I won't bother. There is nothing wrong with shipping via USPS and Canadapost (I can track packages via Canadapost to the US, I'm not sure if you can the other way, but I can't see why not). Merchants who absolutely insist on using Fedex or UPS iritate me. Its not so bad on high ticket items, but I don't want to double or triple the price of my purchase just to get it from you to me. Every carrier offers estimates, so it really isn't rocket science to figure out that the item you want to send costs $40 with UPS and only $8 with USPS.

Or http://usps.gov/
The United States Postal Service has not been a government run institution... these facts - www.usps.com

I thought the post office broke away from the government and that's why prices keep increasing. Also isn't that why its http://www.usps.com/ instead of http://www.usps.gov? [ Reply to This ]

I thought the post office broke away from the government and that's why prices keep increasing. Also isn't that why its http://www.usps.com/ instead of http://www.usps.gov?

http://postcalc.usps.gov/mailpiecedimensions.asp

Could be postal rates. I don't know what they weigh, but square envelopes cost more to mail in most cases.

The post office charges more for square envelopes.

From http://postcalc.usps.gov/mailpiecedimensions.asp

First-Class Letter Nonmachinable Surcharge:

First-Class envelopes weighing 1 ounce or less require an additional $0.13 nonmachinable surcharge if any one of the following apply:

        * It is a square letter
        * It contains very rigid items such as wood or metal
        * It has clasps, string, buttons, or similar closure devices
        * It has an address parallel to the shorter dimension of the letter
        * It contains items such as pens that cause the surface to be uneven
        * The length divided by height is less than 1.3 or more than 2.5 (calculate this below)

This is an easy one: square envelopes cost more.

U.S. Postal Service's National Change of Address.
https://moversguide.usps.com/?referral=USPS

See section E of the term and conditions.

http://ribbs.usps.gov/files/ncoalink/CERTIFIED_LIC ENSEES/
http://ribbs.usps.gov/files/ncoalink/CERTIFIED_LIC ENSEES/FULL.PDF

U.S. Postal Service's National Change of Address.
https://moversguide.usps.com/?referral=USPS

See section E of the term and conditions.

http://ribbs.usps.gov/files/ncoalink/CERTIFIED_LIC ENSEES/
http://ribbs.usps.gov/files/ncoalink/CERTIFIED_LIC ENSEES/FULL.PDF

Better read this first. At least 3.1.3 and probably others are pertinent.

Yes, actually. See 'Quick Service Guide 011 Private Express Statutes' at: http://pe.usps.gov/text/qsg/q011.htm for details.

Any mailable matter not bearing postage and found as described above is subject to the same postage as would be paid if it were carried by mail.

She'd have owed postage on the sample product.

-bs

"China or Hong Kong (which, incidentally, is part of China)"

Yes, but Hong Kong still maintains their own independent postal authority, which is why you should address things directly to Hong Kong instead of China.

"I think the $10 Splinter Cell 9 + $59 S&H may just turn me off."

Um... we're not exactly talking UPS here. By Hong Kong Post's international rates, you could get a small package ~150 g to the US for around $3.00 (1.00 HKD ~ 0.13 USD). The price will, of course, go up if you want bells and whistles like tracking, but if you don't want it overnight, there's no need to pay for overnight pricing.

The importation of personal articles is limited to those intended for personal use and imported in reasonable quantities. The value of the items contained in each shipment must not exceed (12.08 USD) and the total value of the shipment received annually by each family may not exceed (96.66 USD).

You do not have to be "in shipping" to determine the costs. You can go directly to the carriers web sites and get that information.
Example: USPS

How many does somone or a comany need to buy to "avoid" ambiguity. I mean every slashdot is taken except slashdot.name, and it kills me that slashdot.com gets any hits for the website slashdot.org. Slashdot used to not even redirect or give you a bozo message for accessing slashdot.com, it just threw the contents of slahdot.org at you.

What are the points of TLDs? I thought they were to avoid ambiguity, yet they promote it. Remember the whitehouse.com vs. whitehouse.gov thing? How about the current suprnova.org vs. suprnova.com and suprnova.net? The USPS can't figure out if they are a .gov or a .com. Same with the US Marines. Are they a .mil or a .com. Keep in mind that .com is supposed to be for commercial stuff. I guess the military is the biggest business in the US, but thats another post.

How many "normal" people know more than the .com domain?

I go on these rants from time to time, and I feel as though I'm in the vast minority of people that see no purpose of TLDs, but can anyone give one example of their utility? I have found one guy on the net that agrees with me and the /.er that pointed me out to that page, but otherwise they keep making more of them and making them longer and more silly.

Now, the only useful thing for TLDs is to separate countries. Why? Because countries have different languages and currencies. I get pissed when I do a google search for something and end up at a brittish site. I have nothing against the brits, but its stupid for me to look at buying a $10 trinket from there. Its not too common, but I've ended up at UK .com sites and was not happy. /rant

Seriously, I once thought it would neat if you could show up at the Post Office, present ID and $5, and be given an authorization number, which when used at verisign or thawte, would provide you with a valid certificate (and easy renewal rights).

The following is a brief description of
how IPP would work. An organization
can establish a relationship with a
qualified U.S. Certificate Authority to
integrate digital signing with improved
identity verification into an online
application. Any individual desiring to
use digital certificates that include
USPS IPP will complete an application
online. The online system will verify
the individual's identity via commercial
data base checking. The system will
then produce a standard Postal Service
form to be printed out at the
''applicant's'' personal computer. The
individual requesting the service will
present this form to a participating post
office where the ''In Person Proofing''
process is conducted. After successful
completion of the IPP event, the CA will
notify the applicant to download their
digital certificate. For clarity, the steps
in the IPP process are outlined below.

Oh, but you do. First-class mail rates significantly subsidize the cost of bulk mail. The USPS knows better than to antagonize some of its largest customers. Ditto for the good folk at the RBOCs.

Actually, that is incorrect. First class is low volume and collected in many places. Bulk mailings are high volume and usually collected at either one location or several locations regionally (like national periodicals). Bulk mailings for the USPS must meet strict guidelines. The more guidelines a mailing meets, the cheaper it is per item. With magazines, for example, if the cover is approved by the USPS, it is cheaper than an unapproved periodical cover because it is easier for machines and letter carriers to read the address. Bulk mailings are cheaper because their collection is streamlined, they are sorted for further discounts, and they have lower priority than first class.

Caps are more easily readable on envelopes, some database and spreadsheet entries, titles of chapters, and many more writing applications.

• Postal Service Discount Requirements - Unless you like spending lots of money on mailings, use one of the discount mail formats, such as automatable mail. Automatable mail means CASS cerification, which means using all caps. Otherwise, the best bet is using an all-caps, 8-18 point sans serif, uniform stroke width font, 3/4 to 3 point space between characters. We found that 10 or 12 point ariel fits the requirements. If you use bulk mailing and you don't fit the requirements, the mail can be thrown out, not returned, so you wouldn't know that your mixed-case address had problems.
• Compression size - Your compressor should notice that almost all the data are of about 30 values {0-9, the common A-Z values, space}, and a few other symbols for the database system. That tiny alphabet, and considering the rarity of certain alphabet letters, will make dynamic huffman VERY happy. Mixed case would at least double the size of the compressed alphabet, meaning larger backups. If you do backups (you do, don't you?) it helps. If you have to distribute the database to different sites, it really helps. In one example I encountered recently, the client had about 6 GB of compressed data and wanted to send it to all of their stores nightly. Each store is equipped with a dedicated high-speed line, but 6GB daily (over 9 hours on dedicated T1) is too much for a nightly transfer. After looking at their data, simply converting everything to caps let it compress to just over 1 GB of data (under 2 hours over a T1 network).
• Uniform - It's easier to search for names that some people like to have different capitalization rules on (Shrudili/ShruDili/ShruDiLi, MacKay/Mackay, etc) Yes, you can do a case insensitive match (you insensitive clod) but it takes more CPU work; That's bad when a batch run already takes a long time for simple case sensitive matches.
• Readability - It's much easier to read names and addresses on the screen when they aren't mixed case.

The first one will save you lots of money in mailing. If your company is in to saving money, then your mailing lists already do that. Compressability of data is *very* important for large-scale systems, and can have significant improvements with an ALL CAPS DATABASE. The last two just help reduce system load and operator error; both are good things to reduce.

frob

It's a similar situation here in the States. Although I don't work for the United States Postal Service, those that I know that do are nice, hard-working people. I would estimates that 80% of our USPS mail is junk. At least the senders are paying the USPS to deliver it!

I would have e mailed the editor. The USPS is notoriously slow.

That's very interesting. I had never heard of such a thing but a web search revealed that it's true. Check out this document from the USPS that explains how it works. It's a real shame that programs and institutions created to help the physically challenged are being abused because the only thing that can come from this is dissolution of the programs and institutions.

Federal elected officials get unlimited free (pronounced "payed for by taxes") postage, so you're paying for the paper junk mail too.