Send Services Post Office Companies Mail People Package

The United States Postal Service (USPS) is the standard mail service when Americans want to send a letter. However, people can choose to use other mail services when they need faster or other types of service. People often use these other services when they want to send a package. Some popular non-governmental mail services include UPS (United Parcel Service), FedEx (Federal Express), and DHL.

All of these companies offer different types of services with different "delivery times" (the amount of time needed to deliver something). "Ground service" is usually the slowest and least expensive way to send a package. Things are sent by cars, trucks, busses, and trains, but not by airplanes. The companies also have "express services" that may have delivery times of two or three days, and "overnight" services where packages arrive the next morning or afternoon.

Many of these private companies also offer "pick-up services," meaning that they send people to one's home or office building to "pick up" (get) the package. In contrast, if you want to send something using USPS, you have to go to the post office and wait in line to send it, or drop the letter or package into a "mailbox" (a large container outside where letters and packages are put so that USPS workers can get them once or twice a day and take them to the post office).

Many companies have "account numbers" with these private companies. They write their account numbers onto the "mailing slip" (the piece of paper that shows who a package is from, who it should be sent to, and how quickly it needs to arrive) and then they receive a bill once a month so that they can pay for all of the things they sent during that month.