Postal & Parcel

1840

United Kingdom introduced the Uniform Penny Post and the Penny Black postage stamp

A single penny charge covered carriage and delivery between any two places in the United Kingdom irrespective of distance, backed by the newly invented adhesive postage stamp. Flat-rate prepaid postage made mail affordable and predictable, creating the conditions for mail-based commerce and later parcel services.

1852

Wells Fargo was formed to offer combined banking and express services

Wells Fargo was among the earliest companies to combine banking with express carriage in the United States. The failure of rivals such as the Butterfield Overland Stage left it with a de facto monopoly on overland traffic.

1861

Pryce Pryce-Jones formed the first mail order company

The Welsh entrepreneur distributed catalogues of Welsh flannel across the United Kingdom, allowing customers to order by mail for the first time, with goods delivered via the newly created railway system. This coupled the postal network to retail distribution and established the demand pattern that parcel delivery would later serve.

1869

United States completed the transcontinental railroad, ending overland express monopoly

Completion of the transcontinental railroad broke Wells Fargo's de facto hold on overland traffic. From 1869 onward package services moved rapidly to rail, which was faster and cheaper than stage carriage.

1913

United States Post Office began parcel post service on 1 January

Parcel post gave rural postal customers package service delivered alongside their regular mail. It removed the need to travel to a town large enough to support an express office, extending parcel reach to the whole country via the existing last-mile postal estate.

1918

United States Railroad Administration consolidated rail express services into the Railway Express Agency

Wartime formation of the United States Railroad Administration merged all rail express services into a single agency, which continued after the war as the Railway Express Agency. REA dominated American package carriage for decades before being dissolved in bankruptcy in 1975.

1918

United States began scheduled air mail service

Air mail was conceived early in aviation and scheduled service began in 1918. Air carriage eventually became the backbone of long-distance express parcel movement.

1973

Federal Express pioneered the hub and spoke system

FedEx routed all packages through a central hub for sorting and redistribution rather than point to point. Described as the most important advance in package delivery, the model became the standard architecture for express parcel networks worldwide.

1975

Railway Express Agency was dissolved in bankruptcy

The rail-based express monopoly collapsed, ending the dominance of railway express carriage in the United States. Its demise cleared the field for road- and air-based private parcel carriers.

1977

United States enacted air cargo deregulation

Deregulation allowed carriers to build an air-based system capable of delivering small packages, including mail, overnight across most of the country. It opened private express competition and made overnight delivery a mass-market capability.

2017

Cainiao and Chinese carriers delivered a record 812 million Singles' Day orders

The first 100 million shipments from the 11.11 shopping festival reached their destinations within three days, half a day faster than 2016 and far quicker than the nine days required in 2013. The feat demonstrated the scale and automation of Chinese express sorting and last-mile capacity.

September 2015

Amazon Prime Now offered one-hour delivery in 13 cities

Amazon extended one-hour delivery, including selected groceries, to thirteen cities. The service normalised sub-day parcel expectations and pushed carriers toward denser urban hub networks.

2013

Walmart and Google launched same-day delivery pilots

Walmart delivered same-day packages from its own stores in test cities via UPS, while Google Express began with a limited number of vendors and cities. Retail stores were repurposed as distribution nodes for rapid local parcel delivery.

2012

United States Postal Service started the Metro Post same-day service

Metro Post used local warehouses and stores for same-day fulfilment, and by 2014 was shipping Amazon orders to 15 cities. It showed the national postal operator adapting its last-mile estate to e-commerce speed expectations.

2011

Postmates began same-day retail delivery

Postmates launched a same-day service drawing on local retail, part of a wave of experimental fulfilment models. It helped revive on-demand local delivery a decade after earlier attempts failed.

1998

Kozmo.com launched a general one-hour local delivery service

Kozmo.com offered one-hour local delivery of small items, an early attempt at on-demand urban parcel service. The business failed in 2001, demonstrating that the economics of instant delivery were not yet viable.

1990s

Regional parcel carriers proliferated in the United States market

A number of regional parcel delivery companies sprang up from the 1990s onward, alongside the national carriers. Their growth diversified the delivery estate and supported dense local last-mile coverage.

1984

China's postal service introduced domestic express-mail service

Domestic express mail extended expedited carriage within China four years after the international service began. It laid the state-run foundation on which thousands of private franchised couriers later built.

1980

China's postal service introduced international express-mail service

China launched international express-mail service in 1980, followed by a domestic express-mail service in 1984. These marked the beginning of a modern Chinese express delivery sector that would grow into the world's largest by volume.