Honoring Central New York Postal Workers + Secrets Your Mail Carrier Won’t Tell You

Today, February 4, is National Mail Carrier Appreciation Day, so we salute those you bring bills upon bills, and happier things like birthday cards and magazines.

There are almost 50 post offices in Oneida County alone. That's a lot of postal employees to thank!

Secrets That Only Postal Employees Know

So what are some things that only mailmen and mailwomen know? According to Reader's Digest,

Mail slows down around Christmas and Valentine's Day

Not necessarily because of the volume of cards, but rather the automatic postal machines have a more difficult time reading addresses on red envelopes.

Media Mail can be a really inexpensive way to mail items that almost no one uses

If you're mailing books, DVDs, CDs or the like, choose Media Mail, it's much less expensive than First Class. However, the media items you're mailing can't contain advertising, so magazines are out.

Postal employees visit 150 million addresses 6 days a week

Think about that. An employee of the federal government visits every home and business in America (and even foreign countries - see the next paragraph) every day of the week save Sunday.

The United States Postal Service delivers mail in three foreign countries

The independent nations of Palau (PW) The Federated States of Micronesia (FM) and the Marshall Islands (MH) have a Compact of Free Association with the US meaning they receive military and economic support including mail delivery. And a few other 2-letter postal abbreviations you don't see often? The territories of Puerto Rico (PR), US Virgin Islands (VI), American Samoa (AS), Guam (GU) and Northern Mariana Islands (MP).