Groups seek end to USPS monopoly on mailboxes

A group of taxpayer and consumer advocates are calling for an end to the U.S. Postal Service’s monopoly on mailboxes.

In response to a Federal Trade Commission request for comment in the May 1 Federal Register, the group questions a rule that bars putting letters or packages in mailboxes without paying a fee to the Postal Service.

The rule “injects unnecessary nuisance, cost and inefficiency into simple acts of community communication,” the group writes in a June 29 letter to the FTC. The letter is signed by officials from the Consumer Postal Council, the National Taxpayers Union, Americans for Tax Reform and other groups.

Under the ban, private citizens cannot put neighborhood fliers or party invitations in boxes. And as online commerce grows, inability to receive private deliveries in mailboxes causes a mounting inconvenience, the letter says.
The FTC is expected to respond by August.