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Millions of items shipped across U.S. daily—how well is it checked?

Posted at 1:16 PM, Oct 26, 2018
and last updated 2018-10-26 16:16:36-04

The U.S. Postal Service handles around 500 million pieces of mail every day. UPS and FedEx deliver 34 million packages combined.

With the number of items being shipped and moved around the country, it’s impossible to closely inspect every single item. So, how do they keep us safe with so many packages? 

The U.S. Postal Service says they have a specific program called the Dangerous Mail Investigations Program to help get involved when suspicious packages come through a facility.

They use X-ray technology and trained employees to recognize suspicious packages, but the daily volume of mail makes it a constant battle.

One of the problems with the recent slew of packages delivered is that the packages were missing postmarks. The question is: how did they get missed and still delivered? 

As the FBI and USPS continue to find out information about what happened, the new attention given to the U.S. Postal Service is under new scrutiny.