The US Postal Service Is As Good As (If Not Better Than) The UK Royal Mail
When blogger Ron Pristas read the story about the UK Royal Mail delivering a letter with only a map, he decided to put the US Postal Service to the test. And when he got the letter back as undeliverable, he did not give up but tried mailing it again from a different facility. Ron's persistence paid off! The envelope is now in the hands of its intended recipient.
Thanks, Ron! And thanks, USPS!!!





Great experiment!
Ron
You made me laugh.
I hope the service was faster than UK service.
Regards
Alan
Atanas,
You're welcome! First, I congratulate the USPS for taking up this challenge and proving me wrong. I put the package in a regular blue mail box in Ewing, New Jersey on January 23, at 11:30 AM. It took the Postal Service less than two days! I wonder if the people who handled this envelope thought of it as a challenge or a stunt? This was well worth the postage.
Secondly, Atanas, thanks for posting the Welsh Steel Worker entry and being so enthusiastic about this test.
Ron
Ok,
good experiment, but hardly a competent test of the relative merits or capabilities of the Uk's Royal Mail and USPS.
The original one had an arrow and a dot on a map of the whole of the south of England, with the detail being at county level.
Yours was a (admittedly rough) street map.
Try this again with a map of part of the US coastline, a man's name, an arrow and a dot!
I don't think it would get there at all, never mind 2 days.
Ok,
good experiment, but hardly a competent test of the relative merits or capabilities of the Uk's Royal Mail and USPS.
The original one had an arrow and a dot on a map of the whole of the south of England, with the detail being at county level.
Yours was a (admittedly rough) street map.
Try this again with a map of part of the US coastline, a man's name, an arrow and a dot!
I don't think it would get there at all, never mind 2 days.
A fun experiment for the inventors, to be sure, but I wonder how much extra work a probably underpaid and overworked postal employee (or team) had to do to accomplish their job in the context of this prank?
Someone pointed out to me that there is a whole book on this -- the author sent letters with the addresses in pictures, puzzles, maps, misspelt, etc.
http://www.amazon.com/Envelopes-Puzzling-Journey-Through-Royal/dp/1400064007/ref=sr_1_1/105-6671365-2378801?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1192479811&sr=8-1