The United States Postal Service (USPS) is an independent agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government responsible for providing postal service in the U.S., including its insular areas and associated states. It is one of the few government agencies explicitly authorized by the Constitution of the United States. The USPS provides mail processing and delivery services to individuals and businesses in the U.S. . It has a monopoly on traditional letter delivery within the U.S. and operates under a universal service obligation (USO), which obligates it to provide uniform price and quality across the entirety of its service area. The USPS is often mistaken for a state-owned enterprise or government-owned corporation because it operates much like a business. As of 2021, the USPS has 516,636 career employees and 136,531 non-career employees.
Some of the services provided by USPS include tracking packages, paying and printing postage with Click-N-Ship, looking up ZIP Codes, calculating postage prices, and digitally previewing incoming mail. USPS also offers Informed Delivery® notifications, which allow customers to preview their mail and manage their packages. Customers can also sign up for a PO Box to keep all their mail secure at a Post Office™ facility, and use Premium Forwarding Service to get all their mail bundled and sent to them every week if they are spending some time away at another address.
