The United States Postal Service (USPS), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or Postal Service, is an independent agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government responsible for providing postal service in the U.S., its insular areas, and its associated states. It is one of the few government agencies explicitly authorized by the Constitution of the United States. The USPS, as of 2021, has 516,636 career employees and 136,531 non-career employees.
FedEx Corporation, formerly Federal Express Corporation and later FDX Corporation, is an American multinational conglomerate holding company focused on transportation, e-commerce and business services based in Memphis, Tennessee. The name "FedEx" is a syllabic abbreviation of the name of the company's original air division, Federal Express, which was used from 1973 until 2000. FedEx today is best known for its air delivery service, FedEx Express, which was one of the first major shipping companies to offer overnight delivery as a flagship service. Since then, FedEx also started FedEx Ground, FedEx Office, FedEx Supply Chain, FedEx Freight, and various other services across multiple subsidiaries, often meant to respond to its main competitor, UPS. The company is the fifth largest American-headquartered employer globally with 547,000 employees, and FedEx is also one of the top contractors of the US government and assists in the transport of some United States Postal Service packages through their Air Cargo Network contract.
United Parcel Service, Inc. (UPS) is an American multinational shipping & receiving and supply chain management company founded in 1907. Originally known as the American Messenger Company specializing in telegraphs, UPS has grown to become a Fortune 500 company and one of the world's largest shipping couriers. UPS today is primarily known for its ground shipping services as well as the UPS Store, a retail chain which assists UPS shipments and provides tools for small businesses. UPS offers air shipping on an overnight or two-day basis and delivers to post office boxes through UPS Mail Innovations and UPS SurePost, two services that pass on packages to the United States Postal Service for last-mile delivery.
Package delivery or parcel delivery is the delivery of shipping containers, parcels, or high value mail as single shipments. The service is provided by most postal systems, express mail, private courier companies, and less than truckload shipping carriers. Package delivery is different in each country, and how packages are delivered is closely connected with the cost for delivering to that country as well as population. In 2019, China, The United States, and Japan were the leaders in package delivery while Latvia, Macau, and Iceland were the bottom three. The population of the bottom three barely totals 2 million while the population of the top three tops totals more than 2 billion. Package delivery is an every day occurrence in the USA while many other countries do not have this luxury.
Stamps.com is a brand and the former corporate name of Auctane, an American company that provides Internet-based mailing and shipping services. Until its acquisition by Thoma Bravo, Stamps.com was a public company traded on the NASDAQ exchange under the symbol STMP. The company's main offices are located in El Segundo, California.
DHL is an American-founded German logistics company providing courier, package delivery and express mail service, delivering over 1.8 billion parcels per year. A subsidiary of the German logistics firm DHL Group, its express mail service DHL Express is one of the market leaders for parcel services in Europe and Germany's main courier and parcel service.
In transportation, freight refers to goods conveyed by land, water or air, while cargo refers specifically to freight when conveyed via water or air. In economics, freight refers to goods transported at a freight rate for commercial gain. The term cargo is also used in case of goods in the cold-chain, because the perishable inventory is always in transit towards a final end-use, even when it is held in cold storage or other similar climate-controlled facilities, including warehouses.
A courier is a person or organization that delivers a message, package or letter from one place or person to another place or person. Typically, a courier provides their courier service on a commercial contract basis; however, some couriers are government or state agency employees.
FedEx Ground, a subsidiary of the FedEx Corporation, is an American ground package delivery company headquartered in Moon Township, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Pittsburgh. The company began as Roadway Package System (RPS), founded in 1985 by transportation company Roadway Services Inc., later renamed Caliber System. FedEx bought Caliber in 1998 to complement its existing FedEx Express business and rebranded Caliber's RPS package delivery service FedEx Ground in 2000.
Mediterranean Shipping Company S.A, branded as MSC is an international shipping line founded by Gianluigi Aponte in Italy in 1970. The company is owned by the Aponte family with its headquarters in Switzerland since 1978. It is the world's largest container shipping company by both fleet size and cargo capacity, controlling about 19.7 percent of the global container ship fleet.
Less-than-truckload shipping or less than load (LTL) is the transportation of an amount of freight sized between individual parcels and full truckloads. Parcel carriers handle small packages and freight that can be broken down into units less than approximately 150 pounds (68 kg). Full truckload carriers move entire semi-trailers. Semi-trailers are typically between 26 and 53 feet and require a substantial amount of freight to make such transportation economical. The term LTL can refer to the freight itself, or to the carrier that transports the such freight.
Consolidated Freightways (CF) was an American multinational less-than-truckload (LTL) freight service and logistics company founded on April 1, 1929, in Portland, Oregon, and later relocated to Vancouver, Washington. Affectionately known as "CornFlakes", Consolidated Freightways was also the founder of the Freightliner line of heavy trucks, now owned by Daimler Trucks. At its height, the company possessed over 350 terminals, employing more than 15,000 truck drivers, dock workers, dispatchers and management. Consolidated Freightways was once the nation's number one long-haul trucking company and the 3rd largest-ever US bankruptcy filing, ceasing business in 2002.
Pitt Ohio Express, LLC, stylized PITT OHIO, is a privately owned transportation and supply chain management company based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania that serves the Mid-Atlantic and Midwestern US. Pitt Ohio ranked 48th on Transport Topics Top 100 For-Hire list and 14th on its Top Less-Than-Truckload (LTL) Carriers list of US and Canadian freight carriers by revenue for 2021.
NAPAREX, LLC, is a National Logistics services company, based in the United States. The name "NAPAREX" is a syllabic abbreviation of the name of the company's services, National Parcel Express.
Railway Express Agency (REA), founded as the American Railway Express Agency and later renamed the American Railway Express Inc., was a national package delivery service that operated in the United States from 1918 to 1975. REA arranged transport and delivery via existing railroad infrastructure, much as today's UPS or DHL companies use roads and air transport. It was created through the forced consolidation of existing services into a national near-monopoly to ensure the rapid and safe movement of parcels, money, and goods during World War I.
General Logistics Systems B.V. (GLS) is a parcel services provider operating in Europe and North America.
XPO, Inc. is an American transportation company that conducts less-than-truckload shipping in North America. The company has headquarters in Greenwich, Connecticut, U.S., and 564 locations globally.
OnTrac is a last-mile delivery company that services the continental United States. Founded in 1986 as LaserShip, the company is based in Vienna, Virginia and has sorting centers in 31 states.
LSO, originally known as Lone Star Overnight, was an Austin, Texas-based regional shipping carrier that focuses on Express next day delivery, utilizing both air and ground transportation in Texas, southeastern New Mexico, certain metro markets in Oklahoma, Louisiana, Arkansas, Alabama & Tennessee, as well as northern Mexico.
Roadie Inc. is an American crowdsourced delivery platform for business and private same-day, urgent and scheduled delivery in the United States. The company was founded in 2014 and launched its web and mobile apps in January 2015. As of September 2021, it reported having over 200,000 drivers covering more than 20,000 zip codes.
