Shipping / Mail Services

In the United States, PO Boxes are available in five different sizes. They are usually arranged from the smallest boxes at the top to the largest boxes at the bottom. The two largest sizes may be configured as drawers. To purchase a P.O. Box, two different forms of identification are required. At least one of them must be a valid photo ID.

FedEx Corporation was founded as FDX Corporation in January 1998 with the acquisition of Caliber System Inc. by Federal Express. With the purchase of Caliber, FedEx started offering other services besides express shipping. Caliber subsidiaries included RPS, a small-package ground service; Roberts Express, an expedited, shipping provider; Viking Freight, a regional, less-than-truckload freight carrier serving the Western United States.; Caribbean Transportation Services, a provider of airfreight forwarding between the United States and the Caribbean, Caliber Logistics and Caliber Technology, providers of logistics and technology solutions. FDX Corporation was founded to oversee all of the operations of those companies and its original air division, Federal Express.

FedEx and United Parcel Service (UPS) directly compete with USPS express mail and package delivery services, making nationwide deliveries of urgent letters and packages. Due to the postal monopoly, they are not allowed to deliver non-urgent letters and may not use U.S. Mail boxes at residential and commercial destinations. These services also deliver packages which are larger and heavier than what the USPS will accept, and unlike the USPS assign tracking numbers to every package. DHL Express was the third major competitor until February 2009, when it ceased delivery operations in the United States.

A variety of other transportation companies in the United States move cargo around the country, but either have limited geographic scope for delivery points, or specialize in items too large to be mailed. Many of the thousands of courier companies focus on same-day delivery, for example by bicycle messenger.

Major domestic (United States) competitors include United States Postal Service (USPS), and FedEx. In addition to these domestic carriers, UPS competes with a variety of international operators, including Canada Post, TNT N.V., Deutsche Post (owner of DHL), Royal Mail, Japan Post, India Post and many other regional carriers, national postal services and air cargo handlers (see Package delivery and Mail pages). However, their earliest competitor was the Distributional Overnight Western National Service (DOWNS), a service with roots in the pony express that has since disappeared.[citation needed]

Historically, the bulk of UPS' competition came from inexpensive ground-based delivery services, such as Parcel Post (USPS). But in 1998 FedEx expanded into the ground parcel delivery market by acquiring RPS (originally Roadway Package System) and rebranding it as FedEx Ground in 2000. In 2003 DHL expanded its US operations by acquiring Airborne Express, significantly increasing its presence in the United States, and adding more competition in the ground delivery market. In response to this, UPS partnered with the US Postal Service to offer UPS Mail Innovations, a program that allows UPS to pick up mail and transfer it to a USPS center, or destination delivery unit (DDU), for final distribution. This process is also known as zone skipping, long used by Parcel Consolidators.

More recently, the continued growth of online shopping, combined with increasing awareness of the role transportation (including package delivery) has on the environment, has contributed to the rise of emerging competition from niche carriers or rebranded incumbents. For instance, the US Postal Service claims "greener delivery" of parcels on the assumption that USPS letter carriers deliver to each US address, six days a week anyway, and therefore offer the industry's lowest fuel consumption per delivery. Other carriers, like ParcelPool.com, which specializes in residential package delivery to APO-FPO addresses, Hawaii, Alaska, Puerto Rico and other US Territories, arose in response to increased demand from catalog retailers and online e-tailers for low-cost residential delivery services closely matching service standards normally associated with more expensive expedited parcel delivery.