The US Postal Service employs around 584,000 people.[1] The bulk of these work as:
Service clerks – Sell stamps and postage, help people pick up packages and assist with other services such as passports.
Mail sorters – Physically sort the mail to go to the correct place. As automation has become more common, some of these people now operate the sorting machines.
Mail carriers – Deliver the mail. In densely populated areas this is done on foot. In
urban areas the carriers often use a
mail truck and drive and walk different parts of their routes. In rural areas, carriers drive to most of their stops.
Vehicle Operator – Drive the truck/vehicle carrying mails/pallets and dispatch from one place to another.
The phrase was not very often used until a spate of
workplace violence incidents by postal workers in the mid-1990s made headlines; the incidents led to the coining of the phrase "
going postal".