Parcel/Message Delivery Services

In recent years, the options available to deliver parcels and messages have expanded dramatically. At one time, the U.S. Post Office had a legal monopoly for most messages, sent as letter mail. It shared a near monopoly for parcels, at least on a nationwide basis, with the now defunct Railway Express Agency (REA), a freight service owned by a consortium of railroads (and therefore also constrained by regulation). Its successor, the U.S. Postal Service (Postal Service), still enjoys an effective and legally guaranteed monopoly for ordinary letters, but overnight letters, facsimile and electronic mail compete for parts of the message business; for parcels, competitive options abound. In short, a regulated entity has turned into just another competitor for many of the basic services it once dominated, and there are an enormous number of new variations of those services available.