USPS regulations; what is a "letter"?

[janeslogin]

George Will, in todays Washington Post states that the USPS "competition is limited by law, which forbids anyone else to deliver a letter that is not “urgent.” In USPS regulations what is a ‘‘letter’’?

[yabob]

Here:

http://pe.usps.com/businessmail101/mailcharacteristics/sizeShape.htm
http://pe.usps.com/businessmail101/mailcharacteristics/letters.htm

[Dewey_Finn]

Not an answer to the question of what defines a letter, but in case you’re curious about the laws that forbids anyone else from delivering letters, the laws are called the Private Express Statutes.

[aceplace57]

It’s expensive, but Fed Ex delivers a lot of paperwork in those Next Day FedEx paks. They sure look like a letter to me. They even have that fold over seal flap.

There must be some exceptions to the postal letter rule.

[Baracus]

@aceplace57

It’s expensive, but Fed Ex delivers a lot of paperwork in those Next Day FedEx paks. They sure look like a letter to me. They even have that fold over seal flap.

There must be some exceptions to the postal letter rule.

Well, that one is right in the OP. If a letter is “urgent”, i.e. needs to be sent overnight, someone else can deliver it.

[janeslogin]

OP is written poorly. Not how do the regulations define a letter but how does the ***law *** creating the limitation define a “letter”?

[friedo]

@janeslogin

OP is written poorly. Not how do the regulations define a letter but how does the ***law *** creating the limitation define a “letter”?

The law doesn’t; the regulations pursuant to the law do. They can be found at 39 CFR part 310 (PDF)

@The Feds

§ 310.1 Definitions.
(a) Letter is a message directed to a specific person or address and recorded in or on a tangible object, subject to the following:
(1) Tangible objects used for letters include, but are not limited to, paper (including paper in sheet or card form), recording disks, and magnetic tapes. Tangible objects used for letters do not include (i) objects the material or shape and design of which make them valuable or useful for purposes other than as media for long-distance com- munications, unless they are actually used as media for personal and business correspondence, and (ii) outsized, rigid objects not capable of enclosure in en- velopes, sacks, boxes or other con- tainers commonly used to transmit let- ters or packets of letters.
(2) Message means any information or intelligence that can be recorded as de- scribed in paragraph (a)(4) of this sec- tion.
(3) A message is directed to a ‘‘spe- cific person or address’’ when, for exam- ple, it, or the container in which it is carried, singly or with other messages, identical or different, is marked for de- livery to a specific person or place, or is delivered to a specific person or place in accordance with a selective de- livery plan. Selective delivery plans in- clude delivery to particular persons or addresses by use of detached address la- bels or cards; address lists; memorized groups of addresses; or ‘‘piggy-backed’’
delivery with addressed articles of mer- chandise, publications, or other items. Selective delivery plans do not include distributions of materials without written addresses to passersby on a particular street corner, or to all resi- dents or randomly selected residents of an area. A message bearing the name or address of a specific person or place is a letter even if it is intended by the sender to be read or otherwise used by some person or persons other than or in addition to the addressee.
(4) Methods by which messages are recorded on tangible objects include, but are not limited to, the use of writ- ten or printed characters, drawing, holes, or orientations of magnetic par- ticles in a manner having a predeter- mined significance.
(5) Whether a tangible object bears a message is to be determined on an ob- jective basis without regard to the in- tended or actual use made of the object sent.
(6) Identical messages directed to more than one specific person or ad- dress or separately directed to the same person or address constitute sepa- rate letters.
(7) The following are not letters with- in the meaning of these regulations: 1
(i) Telegrams.
(ii) Checks, drafts, promissory notes, bonds, other negotiable and nonnego- tiable financial instruments, stock cer- tificates, other securities, insurance policies, and title policies when shipped to, from, or between financial institutions.

…and so on and so forth. It goes on for several pages, as federal regulations love to do.

[janeslogin]

So, what prevents me from sending all my “letters” via UPS?

[friedo]

@janeslogin

So, what prevents me from sending all my “letters” via UPS?

Nothing at all, because UPS acts according to the Private Express exceptions which were linked a few posts up.

[janeslogin]

Ignore cost and pragmatics and consider a hypothetical. I can use UPS for all my letters under the exception noted above. Apparently everyone can use UPS. So what is the function of the “competition is limited by law” in the quote from George Will in the OP?

[Dewey_Finn]

Well, any competitor must charge a lot more than the USPS. Specifically, “a letter may be carried out of the mails when the amount paid for the private carriage of the letter is at least six times the rate then currently charged for a 1-ounce single-piece First-Class Mail letter.”