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The postal service, though often viewed as a relic of a pre-digital age, continues to perform functions that private couriers rarely replicate at comparable cost. Universal service obligations typically require national postal operators to deliver to every address, including remote rural properties, at a uniform price regardless of distance. Private delivery firms, by contrast, frequently impose surcharges for such locations or decline to serve them at all, since the cost of a single rural delivery can exceed that of dozens of urban ones. This obligation, while financially burdensome for postal operators, ensures that rural residents retain affordable access to mail and parcel delivery, a service many now depend on for essential goods ordered online.