This week on Mailin' It, we’re joined by Mary Anderson, Executive Director of International Postal Affairs, to learn more about the Postal Service’s international mail operations. We’ll talk about how the Postal Service works to ensure letters and packages mailed reach their destinations anywhere in the world!
In this episode, our hosts are joined by Mary Anderson, Executive Director of International Postal Affairs, to talk about the important role the Postal Service plays in mail delivery worldwide. We’ll learn about how the Postal Service works with 192 governments around the world to standardize mail transmission. We’ll also discuss international postage, delivery during times of conflict, and more.
Dale Parsan:
Hey everybody, welcome to Mailin’ It! The official podcast of the United States Postal Service. I'm your co-host Dale Parsan.
Yasmine DiGiulio:
And I'm Yasmine DiGiulio. In this episode, we're going to talk about how the US Postal Service ensures that letters and packages mailed from here will reach their destinations almost anywhere in the world. And vice versa. We're talking about international mail and the super important role the us plays in mail delivery worldwide. Dale did you know that 46% of the world's mail is processed and delivered by the US Postal Service?
Dale Parsan:
I thought we usually save our “Did You Know’s” for later in the episode?
Yasmine DiGiulio:
That one's a bonus!
Dale Parsan:
Well, that's pretty incredible considering the US only has about 4% of the world's population.
Yasmine DiGiulio:
Here to tell us more about the Postal Services international mail operations is this episode's guest, Mary Anderson. Mary is executive director of international postal affairs at the United States Postal Service. Welcome Mary.
Mary Anderson:
Thank you.
Dale Parsan:
Mary. Tell us a little bit about what you do at the Postal Service. You've been here for 15, 16, 17 years?
Mary Anderson:
That's correct. About 17 years. I've been working for the United States Postal Service, and I am currently the executive director of international postal affairs.
Dale Parsan:
Tell me a little bit more about what exactly your specific job is?
Mary Anderson:
My specific job is I am the United States Postal Service diplomat. So I work with foreign posts and foreign governments worldwide to come to develop a resolution for any concerns or problems or issues or even new opportunities that United States Postal Service may have. So I work cross-functionally with many foreign posts, many governments to come to a resolution for us, and also ensure that the resolution is done diplomatically without hopefully causing any diplomatic concerns on the way, just saying
Yasmine DiGiulio:
That's great. So, Mary, since we're going to be talking about international mail, can you explain what that is? Is there a standard definition that you use?
Mary Anderson:
The standard definition is… And I guess I'll probably try to, to look at it as if I was in the United States and I wanted to send a mail or package from North Carolina to California, I shouldn't have to worry about different rules and regulations or how to get it from here to there. I should be able to go to my local post office and mail it and put the correct postage on the parcel or the letter and mail it. And that's what we do on the international side, so that our consumers and our businesses in the United States can send Mail and packages worldwide without worrying about all the rules and regulations. They can get it there safely, securely through the Universal Postal Union that we've been a part of for since 1800’s. And did you know, we've been delivering mail internationally since the 1700’s?
Dale Parsan:
Wow. Wait, 1700’s?
Mary Anderson:
Yeah, it's been a long time. And we work cohesively with all of the foreign posts and governments worldwide to ensure smooth transition and smooth transactions so that when you mail that letter or parcel to your friends or family or a business partner around the world, it gets there quickly accurately. And you know, that you can trust the post around the world.
Dale Parsan:
So speaking on, you know, the amount of different parties and entities you guys work with, gimme a rough estimate. How many different partners are there out there?
Mary Anderson:
Oh, there's well over 192… There there's just a lot. And, and we work in, what's called the Universal Postal Union because you're wondering how do you get 192 foreign countries and posts all to agree on one thing or two things or, or many things. So, several times throughout the year, we meet in Bern Switzerland. And we work with the Universal Postal Union, which is the division of the United Nations. And the Universal Postal Union dates back to 1874. It predates the United Nations. So it's, it's similar to the United Nations where it's one country, one vote. So it's very important that we work with many countries worldwide to ensure that the US interests are first and foremost, and that we ensure that our citizens of the United States get what they need, and be able to mail mail and parcels around the world. So we go to Bern every year to make sure all the posts and all the mailing is standardized so that you don't have to worry if you're a citizen of the United States or a business in the United States, that if you mail something with the United States Postal Service, it will get delivered worldwide consistently 365 days a year.
Dale Parsan:
I have such a hard time trying to just figure out with my small group of friends, what we're gonna do this weekend.
Mary Anderson:
That you are so correct, Dale. We have to negotiate, all the time with our different countries and territories and posts throughout the union, the Universal Postal Union, because if not commerce could not grow worldwide without standardization. So if France had different standards than Switzerland or Switzerland had different standards than the United States, that's why we all get together multiple times throughout the year in Switzerland, to make sure that all 192 are using standardized processes and procedures to pick up, sort and deliver mail worldwide.
Yasmine DiGiulio:
I wanted to go back to something we mentioned earlier. Why does the US handle so much of the world's mail?
Mary Anderson:
The international mail is so large for the United States Postal Service because we are a melting pot. We're from… many of us are from so many different countries. Uh, we have our relatives or our, our parents or our grandparents. Many of us are immigrants to this country. So it is very easy for us to have mail going from the United States to well over 190 countries, every single day, 365 days. And the US, we make mail easy for people, especially in the rural areas to access eCommerce worldwide. If you have a web address you could virtually be worldwide day one, someone could find you on a search engine and find your website and request your products of services. So we wanna make it at USPS very easy for, uh, customers and also businesses to be found and be able to ship their goods and services worldwide.
Dale Parsan:
So, uh, Mary, I'm curious, as we're talking more and more about international mail and how much mail comes in and out of, out of the United States, I want to know a little bit about how USPS's membership with the union affects small businesses here in the US. I would imagine that with things being so global nowadays, it just increases competition for small businesses here.
Mary Anderson:
It definitely increases, competition for small businesses because now the United States small businesses are competing worldwide, especially with the worldwide web. Small businesses - if you have a product or service to sell, you could be competing with someone in India or someone in China, or even someone in Canada selling this exact same product or service you have. So how do you stand out? How do you get that product or service to your consumer quicker, faster, better? And that's with the United States Postal Service - is because with the Universal Postal Union, working with us in Switzerland, we're able to standardize the method of delivery and processes so that the small business doesn't have to worry. They just go to their local post office, mail, the package, put the proper postage on and in a way it goes, we take care of everything else.
Yasmine DiGiulio:
What happens with the logistics once the international mail leaves the US and how does it come back into the country and then get distributed?
Mary Anderson:
That's a great question, Yasmine. So this is… We have several international service centers that we have throughout the United States that distribute and dispatch mail throughout the world. So if I were to mail a parcel from here to Canada, it would first stop at one of our international service centers and get ready before it is exported to Canada. We work in conjunction with customs and border protection for the examination and the access, the duties and taxes, if there's any owed. And just like, you know, similar to packages, you mentioned coming into the United States, how do we handle packages from 192 countries coming into the United States? Well, similar to, I would say, like, if you're taking a flight and you're flying from, Hmm, Greenland to the United States, you would have to stop through customs. You can't just get off the plane from Greenland and come right into the United States and Washington, Dulles, you have to go through customs. And all of our packages go through customs, whether they go, in their inbound, from the United States to coming into the United States are exporting from the United States. They go through a form of customs, just like a person would.
Dale Parsan:
Is that also, uh, any mail that's coming over through sea freight?
Mary Anderson:
That is correct. Everything goes through customs, whether it's sea freight, ocean freight, air freight, parcel, everything goes through customs. Similar to a consumer flying on a plane, you have to go through customs. If you stop in a different country and you're flying or, or even on a, on a boat or a cruise, you go through customs.
Dale Parsan:
Well, now that you tell me that I, I think I have an idea of where at least two of the ISEs might be. I'm gonna say Miami and Los Angeles.
Mary Anderson:
You are correct. They're in Miami, Los Angeles, and we have two others. Uh, Yasmine, would you like to take a guess
Yasmine DiGiulio:
I’ll guess, New York and Chicago.
Mary Anderson:
Wow. You guys are superstars. That's wonderful. Yeah. So we have four ISC’s and that's where the bulk of our international mail is imported and exported from in to the United States.
Dale Parsan:
Great. So outbound mail. If I want to send something, let's say to England, I can buy postage at my local post office, right? It's gonna be whatever postage that is readily available. What happens to my package when it gets to England?
Mary Anderson:
Oh, when it gets to England, this is where he gets super, super fun, Dale. In England, we've already negotiated with Royal mail. Our partner in England that delivers the mail for us. We've already negotiated with them through the Universal Postal Union that they would receive the parcel and deliver the parcel. So that there's nothing that the consumer has to do on either end. So we really pay and work with that, that country and that post to allow those parcels to move freely. And then we also pay terminal dues. So these are fees that are set by the Universal Postal Union that the country responsible for sending an item - in this case would be us, United States Postal Service - to the country receiving, and that would be England or Royal mail - that we compensate them for delivering that parcel.
Yasmine DiGiulio:
Mary, are there some countries that are not in the union? And if so, what happens if I needed to mail something there?
Mary Anderson:
There are no countries that are not in the union. Every single country has signed on to the union because being part of the United Nations, the Universal Postal Union, every country has seen that the benefit of being part of the Universal Postal Union and transacting commerce with each other, with all 192 posts and countries and foreign territories. We often use bilateral agreements with different countries to handle the mail and deliver the mail. Uh, but yes, every single country, every country in the world is part of the Universal Postal Union. That's what makes it so special Yasmine.
Dale Parsan:
I'm still stuck on small businesses. As small businesses are, are able to ship worldwide, do countries do different countries in the union pay different postal rates or are the rates pretty consistent from one country to the next?
Mary Anderson:
So it depends - depending on how much volume you're sending or what we call tonnage, how much weight that you're sending. And it depends on if you're a developing country or more developed country. So England, since we use that, as a prior example is more developed country than some of the smaller countries that are just getting started. Some countries are very, very young. Some are kind of old, they've been around since the 1400’s or 1500’s. So they have a very sophisticated network, but some countries, you know, through, through different, uh, transactions of territories, they they're pretty young. So there's a list of developing countries and more developed countries. And it was originally negotiated by the Universal Postal Union in 1960. And it really included more of the heavy manufacturing countries. So, it gives the, the least developed countries, an opportunity to really grow and expand and become more of a more developed country.
Yasmine DiGiulio:
I remember reading about significant changes to international rates a few years ago. Can you tell us more about that?
Mary Anderson:
Yeah. The heart of the issue, that was, that was very significant to the US Postal Service. And the heart of the issue was, was that some countries had become more developed since the rates were originally negotiated in 1960. Now let’s think about this for a while: 1960 We had originally negotiated who was gonna be a more developed country or who was gonna be a least developed country. And, and I hate to tell you this, uh, Yasmine and Dale, I wasn't around in 1960
Yasmine DiGiulio:
So really they had much cheaper rates than they should be having based on the strength of their economy and other factors that go into it.
Mary Anderson:
You are correct because since 1960, they had really worked in their country to, to really elevate manufacture and elevate technology, elevate so many different things. They were not least developed back in... Maybe they were least developed back in 1960, but in the 20th century and 21st century, they were very developed. So they were paying rates as if they were a small, tiny, tiny country that still is trying to make it. So it was very unfair.
Dale Parsan:
Okay. Well, don't, don't bury the lead. How, how did all this get resolved?
Mary Anderson:
Oh, did I mention that since 1874, USPS - United States Postal Service had been part of the Universal Postal Union? And did I mention Yasmin and Dell that we were 46%.... We are 46% of the world's mail, the largest provider of, of mail throughout the world. So the, the administration at the time, had threatened to, to pull out of the Universal Postal Union that we had been part of since 1874. The administration felt it was unfair that the United States Postal Service was carrying this heavy burden for things that were negotiated - treaties that were negotiated since 1960. So we, the union was very, you know, cautious and, and upset that, that the largest post in the world wanted to pull out based on the administration at the time in the White House.
Yasmine DiGiulio:
It sounds like this impacted not just the United States, but other countries as well.
Mary Anderson:
It definitely impacted a lot of other countries. It definitely. So it really reset the, a total landscape of how small businesses and medium businesses do business worldwide. Now, you know, you may not source from certain countries, you may source more closer to home, or a manufacturer that's right next door in a state, you know, a couple of states over in the United States. You may not source that foreign manufacturer like you did before, because before, you know, we were losing so much money at USPS for the, the least developed countries.
Yasmine DiGiulio:
Did this impact our relationship with the UPU at all, when we threatened to pull out?
Mary Anderson:
Oh, yes, it did.
Dale Parsan:
So let's say in a different reality, we actually, the administration decided to leave the, the union, what would've happened?
Mary Anderson:
So if the administration decided to leave the union, United States Postal Service would have to negotiate bilateral agreements with over 192 countries and foreign territories and posts for them to be able to pick up sort and deliver our mail worldwide. So it was, it would not, we would not be under the, the treaty that we're under right now. We would have to go out and individually negotiate with every single country. That would've taken so long. And, uh, some countries move faster than others. Some governments move faster than others, but we would have to go out in individually. We also would have to go out and, and figure out how we're going to receive mail. So it's not just sending mail outbound from the United States to all these different countries and territories, how are we going to receive mail? So that would all be up to a bilateral agreement of how often we receive the mail, how often we deliver the mail. How many times do we scan the package? How many times, where do we upload the information after we scan the package, we would have to figure out, do we send that information to the, the post or the, the country or the territory or the government? It was, it really upended our entire existence as a post being with the Universal Postal Union, that everything would have to be done virtually as if we were starting back in 1874.
Dale Parsan:
My gosh. And if a bilateral agreement with particular countries couldn't be reached, we couldn't mail stuff!
Mary Anderson:
Correct. Let's just say, for example, ABC country or post decided not to do a bilateral with United States, uh, Postal Service, for whatever reason. We would have to let our consumers in our businesses know here in the United States, that you could not mail to that particular country. Now our consumers and our businesses have the, the, the opportunity to mail and ship to virtually everywhere, everywhere in the world. But if we had to individually negotiate, every single bilateral, some countries may have said no, because like, as Yasmine said, and as I mentioned, we ruffled some feathers
Dale Parsan:
Mary Anderson:
Yes. A resolution was reached and, you know, it, and it was, it had been since 1960, so it really did need to, to have a second look, you know, I think EV after 60, 70 years, maybe you should, should re-look at things. What do you think Dale ?
Dale Parsan:
I think that's about right.
Yasmine DiGiulio:
Is there a policy in place now to periodically review and update these classifications?
Mary Anderson:
Yes, there is. Yes, there is. Thanks to the administration and thanks to the United States Postal Service. There is now policies to relook at this every year, and we will not have to wait 50 years. Great. Yeah. Yeah. And it benefits the businesses, the small businesses in the United States, because it makes them more competitive worldwide. Before, a small business… Before we, we looked at this and before we threatened to pull out of the Universal Postal Union, a small business could really was not very competitive because if you have a foreign business that can sell to your US demographic and be able to ship it, mail it and produce it for less than a dollar, and ship it all the way from a foreign country, but the us business, small business can't produce it, ship it, or mail it under five or $10… It made it very, very, very in-competitive for the small businesses.
Yasmine DiGiulio:
You know, Mary, I wanted to shift the conversation a bit to ask you a question I've been really curious about lately. How is international mail delivered to places where there's war or some other conflicts such as what's happening in Ukraine right now?
Mary Anderson:
What's happening in Ukraine right now is we deliver… United States Postal Service in every post as part of the Universal Postal Union. As part of our treaty, we deliver mail, whether it's times of peace or times of war or times of disturbances, we always deliver the mail. And one of the things that maybe you've seen throughout the pictures, because we're all much too young to have seen some of these during the wars - World War I or World War II - is you often see a soldier sitting at the front lines, reading a letter from home, something, or sharing cookies, or, or bake goods from their, their sisters or their mothers or their friends. And, you know, everyone really wants that, that touch from home, that, that information, that, that piece of mail. So no matter if it's a conflict or not, we always get the mail there, we get it there safely, and we get it to a certain point. So, as, as like you mentioned in Ukraine, we have a list of postal codes that could change weekly or monthly, depending on the, the fighting. And we know which areas we can get the mail delivered to that are not in the conflict areas and which areas are accepting mail. And we get updates regularly from Ukraine.
Dale Parsan:
So whenever we, uh, areas identified as a conflict area, what happens to that mail that can't be delivered?
Mary Anderson:
If it can't be delivered, we hold it at one of our international service centers. If it's already in, if it's already in transit, we hold it at one of our international service centers. We do not export it. And then also we let all of our consumers and our businesses know throughout the country, throughout the United States, that we cannot mail to that particular country. Because right now it's unsafe for the letter carriers to go in and deliver that mail.
Yasmine DiGiulio:
What about during a global pandemic?
Mary Anderson:
So in a global pandemic, oh my gosh, eCommerce, really just… just people ordered everything online, including myself. I ordered everything online during a global pandemic. So if the country was open and was receiving mail, we shipped the mail. If the country closed, cuz we had a lot of countries closed over the past two or three years, they closed their borders. They closed down. They would not let anybody in.
Yasmine DiGiulio:
Or there were no flights going.
Mary Anderson:
Correct. There was no flight. So we had to hold that mail at our international service centers and then also work with our retail partners throughout the country to let them know to stop accepting mail for that particular country. Australia is a prime example. They shut their country down. They would not allow foreign visitors to come in or mail or anything. A lot of countries did that during the, during the pandemic. So we work with the Universal Postal Union and we have messaging that goes back and forth to all of us every day to let us know who is open, who's accepting mail, who's not accepting mail. And so that we can let our retail partners and our business partners know throughout the United States,
Dale Parsan:
Mary, whenever I'm, I'm getting ready to mail something here in the US and I'm at one of our kiosks, it asks a certain number of questions around, Hey, uh, does your package or, or letter or whatever I'm mailing does it, can you make sure, can you certify it doesn't contain X, Y, and Z that shouldn't be put in the mail stream. I understand that we, we put those prompts in front of our customers within the US. How do we make sure that nothing is, is originating in other countries and making it into our mail system that that could put our infrastructure at risk?
Mary Anderson:
So we have a, a system in place with customs and border protection to ensure that anyone that's sending something into the United States, that they send information about that package before it actually lands in the United States. So before it even takes off and from the origin country, the exporting country, and before it's imported into the us, we know what's in that package, where it's from, where it's manufactured and, uh, who it's destined to go to in the, the particular United States. That is very, very important, similar to when you get on a flight and you may wanna go from here to Madrid, Spain. Before you get on that flight, you send, you give your passport to the, the gate agent. The gate agent sends that information on, well, guess what? We have the same thing for packages, for parcels worldwide. So parcels coming into the United States, we get a pre-alert of all the information that's in that particular parcel before it lands. So we can know before it lands, whether we need to screen that package or hold it out for customs for further inspection.
Dale Parsan:
On the topic of the UPU, and the collaboration that you all do multiple times, you're going to Switzerland, which by the way, if you need two guests to come along to help out Yasmine and I are willing to volunteer!
Mary Anderson:
I'll, I'll keep that in mind.
Dale Parsan:
Mary Anderson:
We most definitely share our best practices. One of the best practices that we do on a monthly daily weekly basis is we work with our postal inspection service, our postal security. Our Chief Barksdale is one of the world's most foremost experts on postal security. Everyone wants to model their postal security after the United States Postal Inspection Service.
Dale Parsan:
That's fantastic.
Mary Anderson:
They lead the work group and the team and the committee on postal inspection worldwide, and they do a phenomenal job. So many of the foreign posts worldwide have modeled their postal inspection after the US Postal Inspection Service.
Dale Parsan:
That's really impressive.
Yasmine DiGiulio:
Mary, one of the biggest questions that we get from social media is “Where is my package?” In the US We know that we can go online to usps.com and we can see that tracking. And all of the scans, does the same system exist for international packages, both outbound and inbound?
Mary Anderson:
It does. It really does. And, and so you can scan, and let's say you, you're shipping a package from here to we'll pick a country - Lithuania, and you're you get it to a point. You get the scans from here to Chicago, one of our international service centers, and then it, it just, you, you get no more scans after that. So if you call one 800 ASK USPS, our wonderful international help desk, they can actually go into the systems and see all the scans from Lithuania to know that it's been received and it's been delivered. So one of the things our team works on at the United States Postal Service is making sure that the Lithuanian post office scans the package and uploads the information quickly, because even when they scan, we can see the information on our side at USPS but we're working very hard so that our consumers can see the information on their side. But if our consumers can't see the information, they can always call 1 800 ASK USPS. And I will say that our call center, our international call center is award-winning. And one of the best in the world and can find that parcel for you. Well, probably while you're on the phone.
Yasmine DiGiulio:
That's great.
Dale Parsan:
Mary, it's been great having you on the show with us and teaching us a bit more about international mail. Thank you.
Mary Anderson:
Thank you, Dale. And thank you, Yasmine. This has been so much fun and outstanding. Thank you for having me.
Dale Parsan:
All right. It's time for Did You Know. In this segment, we're gonna talk about two little known, but important aspects of the Postal Service. First up is mine: Semi Postal stamp program. Yasmine, are you familiar with that?
Yasmine DiGiulio:
That's the program responsible for the breast cancer research stamps, right? I know a little bit about it, but I'd like to hear more.
Dale Parsan:
That's right. The semi postal stamp program is a way to provide funding for causes that are considered to be quote “in the national public interest and appropriate as federal law describes it.” They cost a little more than regular first class stamps, but when somebody buys a semi postal stamp, that extra money goes to the cause. For example, right now the post office has four of these for sale: the Breast Cancer Research stamp, which you mentioned a Saved Vanishing Species stamp, an Alzheimer's stamp, and a Healing PTSD stamp. They're each 75 cents.
Yasmine DiGiulio:
How do they choose which causes to support?
Dale Parsan:
While the bar's pretty high. The breast cancer and save vanishing species stamps were directed by Congress. The Postal Service itself approved the other two in a process that began with a request for proposals in 2016, by the office of stamp services. From there, the Citizens Stamp Advisory Committee made recommendations. And finally, the decision rests with the Postmaster General.
Yasmine DiGiulio:
I'm guessing these semi postal stamps have raised a lot of money.
Dale Parsan:
Oh, absolutely. The breast cancer research stamp by itself has raised over $94 million since it went on sale in 1998, the save vanishing species stamp has brought in nearly $7 million since 2011. A total of $1.2 million was raised from the Alzheimer's stamp. And the healing PTSD stamp has brought in about $1.5 million.
Yasmine DiGiulio:
How does the money get distributed?
Dale Parsan:
The Postal Service deducts the actual postage cost from the stamp, and then some reimbursement for its own costs from the stamp sale. The rest goes directly to the appropriate federal agency or agencies.
Yasmine DiGiulio:
It sounds like a really simple and effective way for people to contribute to causes they believe in.
Dale Parsan:
I agree now, Yasmine what's your did you know?
Yasmine DiGiulio:
Okay. Dale, I'm sure you've heard of the depression era post office murals, but did you know that more than 1000 post offices still house this historic artwork?
Dale Parsan:
I have heard about these murals. I've even seen some of them over my years working with the Postal Service, but I didn't realize there were so many.
Yasmine DiGiulio:
Mean either. But they were part of a publicly funded program that placed artwork in federal buildings nationwide. But let me take a step back first. During the great depression, Franklin Roosevelt initiated federal programs to jumpstart the economy, including public work projects, to create jobs and stimulate cash flow. In addition to other projects, the federal government went on a building spree. About 1,700 new post offices were built in the 1930s. That's more than the total number of post offices that had been built in the 50 years leading up to the great depression.
Dale Parsan:
Wow, that's quite an investment. And the murals were a part of that.
Yasmine DiGiulio:
They were. As part of the project up to 1% of a building's construction cost was to be used for decoration. In 1934, the treasury department created the section of painting and sculpture to oversee the design and construction of federal buildings, including post offices. The section began looking for artists to create murals and other artwork to be placed in the newly constructed post offices.
Dale Parsan:
I'm guessing they chose post offices so the publicly funded artwork could be easy for the public to see?
Yasmine DiGiulio:
That's right, Dale. And unlike some other government funded art programs during the depression money was awarded through a competitive process. Artists submitted anonymous sketches for consideration by a panel of judges that included art critics, fellow artists, and architects. They passed their top choices to the section, which had the final say,
Dale Parsan:
Did they give the artists any guidelines they had to follow? Or could they propose whatever they wanted?
Yasmine DiGiulio:
Yeah. The section had something very specific in mind. They wanted realistic American scenes painted in a realistic style. They really didn't want any abstract art or symbolic or classical art.
Dale Parsan:
You mean things like murals with winged angels or ancient Greeks and Romans running around in togas.
Yasmine DiGiulio:
Exactly.
Dale Parsan:
Weren't some of the murals pictured on postage stamps a few years ago.
Yasmine DiGiulio:
Yeah, they were. In 2019, the Postal Service issued the post office murals forever stamps featuring five of these murals.
Dale Parsan:
Ah, yes, I remember them. I'm glad you brought up the murals Yasmine. They're an important part of postal history. And with that, we'll wrap up this installment of did you know.
Yasmine DiGiulio:
Dale, what did you think about our conversation with Mary?
Dale Parsan:
It really blows my mind that 192 countries - the entire world - gets together to agree on something, which in hindsight seems very simple: mail. But it's a way that everybody can come together and ensure that open communication remains attainable and cost effective. I blows my mind. What about you?
Yasmine DiGiulio:
Yeah, I agree. I found that to be really inspiring that so many countries could come together and agree on all these different points around providing mail services throughout the world. I loved her story about continuing to provide mail and keeping people connected, even in times of conflict and war and disputes and things like that. I think it's a important story that kind of goes with our recent episode about military mail and the importance of mail and staying connected with your loved ones. Even when you're far from home.
Dale Parsan:
It's easy to take something like mail for granted, but then stories like that bring you back and let you know how important it really is.
Yasmine DiGiulio:
Definitely. Well that wraps up this episode of “Mailin ItI” Don't forget to subscribe to mailing it wherever you get your podcast to make sure you don't miss the next episode and follow along on Instagram @US Postal Service, Twitter @USPS, and on Facebook.