Rural Free Delivery

Rural Free Delivery (RFD), since 1906 officially rural delivery, is a program of the United States Post Office Department to deliver mail directly to rural destinations. The program began in the late 19th century. Before that, people living in rural areas had to pick up mail themselves at sometimes distant post offices or pay private carriers for delivery.

The proposal to offer free rural delivery was not universally embraced. Private carriers and local shopkeepers feared a loss of business. RFD became a political football, with politicians promising it to voters, and benefiting themselves to reach voters. The United States Post Office Department began experiments with Rural Free Delivery as early as 1890. However, it was not until 1893 that Georgia Representative Thomas E. Watson pushed through legislation that mandated the practice.^[1] However, universal implementation was slow; RFD was not adopted generally across the country until 1902.^[2]

The rural delivery service has used a network of rural routes traveled by carriers to deliver to and pick it up from roadside mailboxes.^[3] As of 2012^[update], the USPS rural delivery service served about 41 million homes and businesses.^[4] As of 2022^[update], the USPS had about 133,000 rural letter carriers serving 80,000 rural routes.^[5] Since 1906 the program has officially been known simply as "rural delivery".^[4]