A History of the Parcel: Day 3

It’s time to take a look at the 1970’s in our latest instalment of the history of the parcel. Whilst many more countries began to issue their fist ever set of stamps, there were some major changes in postal structure for many countries across the globe throughout this decade, including the USA and Canada.

Between 1971 and 1979, many countries issued their first stamps including Benin, Angola, Bangladesh, Belize, Tuvalu and the Gilbert Islands which became Kiribati in 1979 and consequently issued new stamps.

The United States passed the Postal Reorganisation Act in the 1970’s, subsequently privatising the postal service.Seven years later, the USA made express mail permanent, after they had trialed the new form of mail since 1970. In 1978, the USA started to copyright postage stamps and other philatelic items.

In 1971, the privatised United States Postal Service began operating courtesy of the Postal Reorganisation Act. In the same year, Canada introduced six-character post codes for the first time. Three years later, the US stopped using the highway post offices. Railroad post offices also came to an end in 1977.

If you need to send a parcel internationally to countries such as the United States or Canada, RAND Logistics can provide you with the international parcels service that you require.

 

 

 

5 Unusual Things the USPS Can and Can’t Send

The second day of our week dedicated to the US is all about the stranger things people have tried – and sometimes failed – to send to or within the US. If you know any of your own, please let us know in the comments!

  1. A man building a house in Alaska tried to send his materials brick by brick through the postal system, finding this the cheapest way to transport everything. This prompted the USPS to outlaw the sending of construction materials.
  2. Several civilians have attempted to post themselves in the US mail, but to date nobody has been successful.
  3. You may or may not be familiar with the black and white custom FedEx planes. Did you know that these planes have transported many pandas between zoos in China and America?
  4. If you’re going to send any poisonous creatures through the US mail, it can only be live scorpions for research purposes only. Be sure to label the box to let the post handlers know what they’re dealing with.
  5. FedEx and UPS will ship human body parts for medical purposes.

If you’re sending something a little more normal than these items, check our quote finder now to discover how much it will cost to send your parcel to America.