Have you made any online purchases? or get a letter? Who pays the postal service in your nation to deliver it to your door?
I have always questioned why we do not pay the postal service in our nation to deliver goods or even letters to our homes. Given the dearth of knowledge regarding postal services in Arab nations, we will use the U.S. mail as an example to address this question. We can apply the same information to postal services in our Arab nations.
First, we need to acknowledge that international mail has a pricing structure. Does the post office receive compensation for its work?
Not directly, though. Suppose you send an envelope to Paris for 84 cents via the U.S. Postal Service. Postal service and infrastructure in the US are included in that expense. Transportation to Paris is covered in another section.
(For international mail delivery, the USPS frequently collaborates with private companies like FedEx and United Parcel Service in addition to commercial airlines.) The costs incurred by the French postal service to deliver the envelope from the airport to the recipient's residence are partially offset by a third component.
Countries have been obliged to reimburse destination nations for domestic delivery expenses since 1969. Based on the weight and quantity of packages being shipped, they typically agree on precise amounts every quarter.
The Universal Postal Union (UPU), a Swiss-based United Nations agency that unifies shipping among its 191 member nations, is in charge of the final dues system. The UPU can be joined by any UN member; other nations need a two-thirds majority vote.
Member nations that experience delivery delays may even face penalties from the UPU. (Only developed nations, along with a few developing nations, are penalized.) If over 86% of incoming mail arrives late at its destination, a country receives a portion of its final dues.
The international postal system was a more intricate web of bilateral treaties prior to the UPU's founding in 1874. Special shipping arrangements had to be made by the senders. To send a letter to someone in Russia, for instance, you might need to first locate a friend in France who could then forward it to a friend in Germany, and so on.
Some even volunteered to work as "shipping agents." This pointless sequence resulted in extra expenses that the sender might not be able to afford and delayed the delivery of the message or package.
Remember these details the next time you make an online purchase and what goes on behind the scenes to make sure the item reaches your door.