The Universal Postal Union (UPU, French: Union postale universelle) is a specialized agency of the United Nations that coordinates postal policies among member nations, in addition to the worldwide postal system. The UPU contains four bodies consisting of the Congress, the Council of Administration (CA), the Postal Operations Council (POC) and the International Bureau (IB). It also oversees the Telematics and EMS cooperatives. Each member agrees to the same terms for conducting international postal duties. The UPU’s headquarters are located in Bern, Switzerland. French is the official language of the UPU. English was added as a working language in 1994. The majority of the UPU's documents and publications – including its flagship magazine, Union Postale - are available in the United Nations' official languages.The Universal Postal Union (UPU, French: Union postale universelle) is a specialized agency of the United Nations that coordinates postal policies among member nations, in addition to the worldwide postal system. The UPU contains four bodies consisting of the Congress, the Council of Administration (CA), the Postal Operations Council (POC) and the International Bureau (IB). It also oversees the Telematics and EMS cooperatives. Each member agrees to the same terms for conducting international postal duties. The UPU’s headquarters are located in Bern, Switzerland. French is the official language of the UPU. English was added as a working language in 1994. The majority of the UPU's documents and publications – including its flagship magazine, Union Postale - are available in the United Nations' official languages. The UPU established that: 1.There should be a uniform flat rate to mail a letter anywhere in the world. 2.Postal authorities should give equal treatment to foreign and domestic mail. 3.Each country should retain all money it has collected for international postage.
Hongkong Post (Chinese: 香港郵政) is a department under the Government of Hong Kong responsible for postal services, though operated as a Trading Fund. Founded in 1841, it was known as Postal Department or Post Office (Chinese: 郵政署) before the handover of Hong Kong in 1997. It is sub-member of the Universal Postal Union since 1877, and is a separate entity from China Post.
China Post is the official postal service of China. The State Post Bureau of the People's Republic of China, the owner of China Post, is both a regulatory authority and government-owned enterprise. Thus, it is responsible for the regulation of the national postal industry and the management of national postal enterprises. The postal service in China can be dated back to the Shang Dynasty. Customs Post Office of the Qing Empire was established in 1878 by Li Hongzhang at the suggestion of the foreign powers, with branch offices in five major trading cities. On 20 March 1896, the Customs Post Office became the Great Qing Post, which in 1911 became independent of the customs service. The Great Qing Post became the Chunghwa Post in 1912. Chunghwa postal service had signed a contract with the China Airways Federal group in 1929 to transport airmail on the Shanghai-Hankow, Nanjing-Beijing, and Hankow-Guangzhou routes. Chunghwa Post had functioned as the main postal service provider of Mainland China until 1949. The current postal service of People's Republic of China was established in 1949. It replaced the Chunghwa Post in mainland China in 1949, as well as in the Universal Postal Union in 1972. It was formerly administered by the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications. China Post is directly supervised by the State Post Bureau of the PRC which has overall responsibility for regulating postal service in China. The State Post Bureau is an agency reporting to the Ministry of Information Industry of the People's Republic of China.
Singapore Post Limited (SGX: S08), commonly abbreviated as SingPost, is an associate company of Singapore Telecommunications Limited and Singapore's designated Public Postal Licensee which provides domestic and international postal services. It also provides logistics services in the domestic market and global delivery services. SingPost also offers products and services including postal, agency and financial services through its post offices, Self-service Automated Machines (SAMs) and vPOST, its internet portal. Its headquarters is in Paya Lebar, Singapore. SingPost has made several acquisitions to strengthen and grow its business. In 2009, it acquired the remaining 50% stake in G3 Worldwide Aspac (G3AP), thereby giving the company presence in 10 countries (including Singapore). It also raised its stake in Malaysian Logistics player GDEX to 27% in 2011. Quantium Solutions. Quantium Solutions is a logistics company and wholly owned subsidiary of Singapore Post., specialising in logistics and fulfilment services to businesses within the Asia Pacific region. Quantium Solutions is headquartered in Singapore and has operations in 45 cities in Asia Pacific: Australia, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Taiwan and Thailand. Formerly known and acquired as G3 Worldwide Aspac Pte Ltd (trading as Spring Global Mail), Quantium Solutions was incorporated in 2001 as a joint venture between TNT Logistics, Royal Mail and Singapore Post. The company was wholly acquired by Singapore Post Pte Ltd on 6 May 2009, and formally launched as Quantium Solutions International Pte Ltd (Quantium Solutions) on 2 November 2009.
The United States Postal Service (originally called the U.S. Post Office Department, when it was completely managed by the U.S. Government before 1971) also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or Postal Service is an independent agency of the United States federal government responsible for providing postal service in the United States. It is one of the few government agencies explicitly authorized by the United States Constitution. The USPS traces its roots to 1775 during the Second Continental Congress, where Benjamin Franklin was appointed the first postmaster general. The cabinet-level Post Office Department was created in 1792 from Franklin's operation and transformed into its current form in 1971 under the Postal Reorganization Act. The USPS employed 626,764 workers (as of January 2014) and operated 211,654 vehicles in 2013. The USPS is the operator of the largest civilian vehicle fleet in the world. The USPS is legally obligated to serve all Americans, regardless of geography, at uniform price and quality. The USPS has exclusive access to letter boxes marked "U.S. Mail" and personal letterboxes in the United States, but still competes against private package delivery services, such as UPS and FedEx. The USPS has not directly received taxpayer-dollars since the early 1980s with the minor exception of subsidies for costs associated with the disabled and overseas voters. Since the 2006 all-time peak mail volume, after which Congress passed the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act, (which mandated $5.5 billion per year to be paid into an account to fully prefund both employee retirement health and pension benefits, a requirement exceeding that of other government and private organizations), revenue dropped sharply due to recession-influenced declining mail volume, prompting the postal service to look to other sources of revenue while cutting costs to reduce its budget deficit. The USPS lost US$5 billion in 2013, and its revenue was US$66 billion.