Universal Service Obligation : History and Development of Laws Relating to the Provision of Universal Postal Services

This study seeks to provide a comprehensive description of the development and status (through 2008) of federal laws that oblige the United States Postal Service to provide a “universal postal service” throughout the United States. Since the term “universal postal service” has no legal definition, the study begins by deriving a definition from legal obligations imposed on the Postal Service relating to geographic scope of services, the range of products to be provided, access facilities, delivery services, the level and structure of rates, quality of service, and user protection. The study traces the evolution of these legal obligations from the founding of the Post Office by the Continental Congress in 1775 through 2008, the date of the study. The study describes, inter alia, the reorganization of the Post Office as an office within the Treasury Department in 1792 (by the federal government established by the Constitution of 1788); introduction of low, uniform postage rates in 1845 and 1851; inauguration of city delivery service in 1863; establishment of the Post Office Department in 1872; evolution of international postal services and founding of the Universal Postal Union in 1875; introduction of rural free delivery in the 1890s; beginning of parcel post in 1912; transformation of the department into the United States Postal Service in 1970; and revisions in the 1970 act by the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act in 2006