There is a long history of postal delivery services stretching back to the Egyptian times. It wasn’t until later years that the delivery methods became more advanced for example during the Roman era they were able to deliver goods 170 miles in 24 hours. The speed of the Romans was not then matched till the 1800’s because after the Roman Empire fell the roads became poorly maintained and so fast travel was not possible any more.

When it came to the 1600’s there were companies that discovered they could make a profit from postal delivery services. They were mainly systems ran by the government and soon after the systems were put in place the government made the service national. When the systems first started there was a part private owned company that was known as the Penny Post it served through out London. They had a set system where the post would be prepared and stamped to show where it was collected from and when, after a short while it was that popular they were making deliveries nearly every hour. However, because the government had a similar postal operation they prosecuted the owner for infringing the State monopoly, and then opened the same system not long after it was taken from him.

It was during the 1700’s that the first over seas mail was received although no major improvements happened with in the American postal system until the later years of the 1700’s. It was Ben Franklin that was told to take charge of America’s postal systems and was told to operate it at a profit. He decided to operate the system so the charge was derived from how much the delivery weighed and the distance it was to travel.

In the 1800’s it became possible to deliver mail over 120 miles with in 24 hours this is when roads had started being developed again meaning travelling along them was a lot easier. It was also during this century that they began to use postage stamps, so people would buy the correct type of stamp for their package. With further developments in transportation leading to railways it became possible to have mail delivered the day after posting over 400 miles.

So over the many years that the postal systems have been running in the UK and in America the quality of service has changed dramatically. As there is now specialised courier delivery services the postal service is now better than ever with services such as same day deliveries now available.