Postal Perspective

Dec 9, 2008 at 9:51 PM
4 comments

According to Slate.com, the United States Postal Service had 515 of its employees arrested in 2006, resulting in 466 convictions, for theft of letters and packages.

My God, you say, isn't anything safe?!

But, as bad as this sounds, let's consider how many packages are delivered by the USPS. In the previous year, according to one estimate, the USPS delivered 212 billion pieces of mail, or about 680 million pieces per day. Of course, we can't assume that each of the 466 convictions represents a first-time offender, but if we say that is the best case scenario, then the theft rate would be .0002%. That's pretty darn good, all things considered.

4 comments

Tags:

postal service

This also appears in:

Freethinkers
- 207 members

Comments

My house is on a "training route" so there is something wrong everyday with what we receive or don't receive. We have had quite a few things go missing but could never say whether they were misdelivered (and kept), misappropriated by the trainee, or stolen by neighbours!