Tips
Here are some general guidelines on what to do - and what not to do - when working with the Postal Service:
1. Do use Express or Priority Mail; don't use FedEx or UPS.
This seems obvious. But it is the rare contractor who hasn't almost sent or, horrors, actually did send something to USPS by FedEx. These things happen for a simple reason. You would never send something to USPS by FedEx, but you are not the person who puts correspondence in the envelope.
Even if you give explicit instructions to your staff to send it by "Express Mail," they may simply assume and with good reason that you mean your company's regular overnight carrier. Or one staff member will tell another staff member, and that person makes the wrong assumption. There are a lot of ways to make sure this doesn't happen (e.g., have a policy that correspondence to USPS can only be handled by staff that you have trained on this issue).
2. Don't be afraid to send a telefax, but send it by mail as well.
Some documents must be telefaxed. Don't hesitate to telefax a document to the Postal Service if it's the type of document that needs, or would benefit from, expedited treatment. The Postal Service is not into Luddite denial, and will often telefax documents to you as well. But don't telefax documents that ordinarily would be sent in the mail. When you do telefax something, make sure to note on the telefax cover page itself, or just above the address on a letter, that the document is being sent "By Telefax and U.S. Mail."
While it may seem duplicative to send the same document by telefax and mail, the extra cost to you is minimal and this type of duplication will most likely be beneficial. When received in the mail, the document is read a second time, increasing the likelihood that you will receive timely action on the matter. (In fact, you may want to do this for all of your business telefaxes, not just the ones you send USPS.)
3. Do understand the Private Express statutes.
The Private Express statutes (18 U.S.C. 1696 et seq.) are the laws that provide legal monopolies to the Postal Service on: (1) the conveyance of letters; and (2) placing mail in your mailbox. The modern-day justification for the monopoly on the conveyance of letters is that it is necessary to ensure universal service at uniform rates. The fear is that if others could provide letter mail services, they would serve only the most profitable, high-density, lowest cost locations. This would allow them to undercut USPS prices, because the Postal Service would still have to serve high-cost, sparsely-populated areas. The justification for the monopoly on placing mail in the mailbox is to ensure the privacy and safety of the mail.
4. Don't confuse "Postal Service" with "Post Office."
Since July 1, 1971, when the old Post Office Department was taken out of the President's Cabinet and the quasi-independent U.S. Postal Service opened its doors, the proper name for the agency that delivers the mail is the U.S. Postal Service not the Post Office. The term "Post Office" means an individual post office, not the entire agency. Using the term "post office" to refer to USPS as a whole has negative connotations.
Don't vary from this rule simply because you hear postal officials, among themselves, refer to their agency as the "Post Office." If you are "non-postal," it would be insulting for you to use the term that way.