Rural Free Delivery

For the EP by Whiskeytown, see Rural Free Delivery (EP).
Rural Free Delivery vehicle (from Popular Mechanics, September 1905)

Rural Free Delivery (RFD), since 1906 officially rural delivery, is a program of the United States Post Office Department to deliver mail directly to rural destinations. The program began in the late 19th century. Before that, people living in rural areas had to pick up mail themselves at sometimes distant post offices or pay private carriers for delivery.

The proposal to offer free rural delivery was not universally embraced. Private carriers and local shopkeepers feared a loss of business. RFD became a political football, with politicians promising it to voters, and benefiting themselves to reach voters. The United States Post Office Department began experiments with Rural Free Delivery as early as 1890. However, it was not until 1893 that Georgia Representative Thomas E. Watson pushed through legislation that mandated the practice.[1] However, universal implementation was slow; RFD was not adopted generally across the country until 1902.[2]

The rural delivery service has used a network of rural routes traveled by carriers to deliver to and pick it up from roadside mailboxes.[3] As of 2012, the USPS rural delivery service served about 41 million homes and businesses.[4] As of 2022, the USPS had about 133,000 rural letter carriers serving 80,000 rural routes.[5]

  1. ^ "Rural Free Delivery | United States postal service | Britannica". www.britannica.com.
  2. ^ Historian United States Postal Service (May 2007). "Rural Free Delivery" (PDF). United States Postal Service. Retrieved April 17, 2011. On October 1, 1890, Congress authorized funding of $10,000 to test the "practicability" of delivering mail to small towns, defined as those having populations of from 300 to 5,000 people, and nearby rural districts..
  3. ^ "Rural Mailboxes". National Postal Museum. Retrieved 2023-12-27.
  4. ^ "Rural Free Delivery". United States Postal Service. August 2013. Retrieved 2023-05-18.
  5. ^ "Driving the Rural Delivery Route". Pushing the Envelope Blog. United States Postal Service Office of the Inspector General. 2022-02-07. Retrieved 2023-05-18.