In the UK, 93% of first class mail is delivered next day, including Saturdays, and you can often post things as late as 4pm.
Whereas USPS first class mail is delivered in 1–5 business days. Admittedly, in a much larger country.
Back in the Netflix DVDs by mail days, it was rare that it took more than a day for the DVD to get to or from the Netflix warehouse (when they started shuttering warehouses in the last few years of service, that went up to two days each way for a DVD from Chicago to Columbus, Ohio).
I’d also point out that mailbox pickup in the U.S. varies by the mailbox, but many of the ones near me have late afternoon (3–4p) pickups and if I go to the mailbox by the local post office it’s 5.30p. I can even take it to the downtown Chicago post office for a 9p pickup.
It definitely is apparent which is the private company based on their pricing schemes, even besides the more consumer-facing UK Post Office locations that are almost entirely franchised and often operate as a small convenience store, etc.
My receiving a letter by actual mail now usually means I have forgotten to set up e-invoicing for a service I subscribe to.
Yet, most of the infrastructure required to handle the (vastly reduced) volume of mail remains.
(I would be surprised if an increasing amount of packages being shipped due to online shopping offsets the reduction in letters mailed)
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1leBjOXKNneuPVZt2PRnI...