(i) Mail addressed to himself. (ii) Mail directed to a temporary visitor.

(iii) Mail addressed to his care or to the number of his box by persons who wish him to take care of it for them not more than 30 days.

(iv) Mail addressed to members of his family.

(v) Mail addressed to his servants or other employees who live in his house.

(vi) Mail addressed to a relative or other person who lives permanently in his house as do the other members of his family. Boarders or roomers are not considered members of the family.

(2) Firms or corporations. A firm renting a box may have placed in it: (i) Mail addressed to its name. (ii) Mail addressed to any of its officials and office employees.

(iii) Mail addressed to any member of a firm, or members of his family, by the consent of all members of the firm.

(3) Students and teachers. Mail addressed to students and teachers at an educational institution may be deposited in the box rented by the school, if consistent with the rules of the school.

(4) Public institutions. Mail addressed to inmates of a public institution may be deposited in the box rented by it, if consistent with its rules.

(5) Associations. An association or society may rent a box, but it may not be used for individual members, other than officers addressed by their official titles.

(6) Hotel or boarding house. Mail addressed to guests or transient boarders at a hotel or boarding house will be placed in the box assigned to it or its proprietor.

(7) Mail addressed to box number. Mail addressed only to a box number may be delivered to the box holder as long as no improper or unlawful business is conducted in this manner.

(g) Keys (1) Regular. A patron renting a key-type lockbox must be supplied with one or two keys, according to his needs. Renters of lockboxes are not permitted to obtain or use any keys except those issued through the post office.

(2) Additional. Keys in excess of two may be obtained from the post office on completion of Form 1094, Application for Additional Keys to Post Office Box, and payment of a 50-cent fee for each key. Under no circumstances may the boxholder or his agent obtain additional

keys for the box assigned to his use from any other source or supplier.

(3) Duplicate. Duplicates of lost keys may be secured by payment of a 50-cent fee for each key.

(4) Fees not refundable. Fees for duplicate and additional keys are not refundable.

(5) Worn and broken. Worn or broken keys shall be replaced without charge if the damaged key is surrendered. (6) Return. All keys must be returned when the box is surrendered. If the patron has lost a regular key, he must pay a fee of 50 cents for each missing key.

(h) Restrictions-(1) Improper purposes. A box will not be rented to anyone who the postmaster has good reason to believe will use it for the purpose of deception, for immoral or improper purposes, or for the conduct of a fraudulent or lottery business.

(2) Misuse. A box will not be rerented to anyone who does not take proper care of it or who disregards the rules concerning its use.

(3) Improper matter in box. Only matter which has passed through the mail, or official postal notices, may be placed in a post office box. (See paragraph (a) of this section.) (Interprets or applies 62 Stat. 784; 18 U.S.C. 1725)

(4) Closing of box. When a postmaster has reason to believe that a box is being used for a fraudulent, deceptive, or unlawful scheme, or for an immoral or improper purpose, or for the purposes of a lottery, or that the safety of the mail is endangered by its continued use, or that its use is for other than the receipt of mail or official postal notices, he will report the facts to the Assistant General Counsel, Mailability Division. If the General Counsel finds that the box is being used for any of said purposes, he shall have the right to order the box closed.

[26 F.R. 11571, Dec. 6, 1961, as amended at 26 F.R. 12125, Dec. 19, 1961; 27 F.R. 11767, Nov. 29, 1962; 28 F.R. 1999, Mar. 3, 1963; 28 F.R. 5423, June 1, 1963; 28 F.R. 11506, Oct. 29, 1963; 31 F.R. 8235, June 11, 1966; 31 F.R. 9795, July 20, 1966; 31 F.R. 13860, Oct. 28, 1966. Redesignated at 31 F.R. 15350, Dec. 8, 1966]

"To Be Called For," "General Delivery," or other words indicating that it is intended for a transient person, will be placed in the general-delivery case to be delivered to the addressee on his application and proper identification.

(b) Where carrier deliveries are provided. General-delivery service is provided at offices having carrier-delivery service for transients and patrons who are not permanently located. Persons intending to remain for 30 days or more in a city having carrier service should file their names and street addresses at the post office so that their mail may be delivered by carrier unless lock-box service is desired. Persons living in cities having carrier delivery service may for good and sufficient reasons satisfactory to the postmaster receive their mail at general-delivery windows. Application for this privilege is made on Form 1527 "Application for the Use of the General Delivery", available at the post office.

§ 151.5 Unauthorized use of premises.

Advertisements, circulars, or notices relating to any private business or having a political character shall not be placed on any portion of post office premises, except that official election notices issued by State or local governments may be displayed.

Sec.

PART 152-WHO MAY CARRY LETTERS

152.1

Postal service a monopoly. 152.2 What are letters. 152.3

Permissible carriage of letters.

AUTHORITY: The provisions of this Part 152 issued under R.S. 161, as amended, sec. 1, 62 Stat. 776, 777; 5 U.S.C. 22, 18 U.S.C. 16941696, 39 U.S.C. 501, 901-906, 4056.

SOURCE: The provisions of this Part 152 appear at 26 F.R. 11573, Dec. 6, 1961, unless otherwise noted. Redesignated at 31 F.R. 15350, Dec. 8, 1966.

§ 152.1 Postal service a monopoly.

The Post Office Department has a monopoly over the transportation of letters for others over post routes. This monopoly was created prior to the adoption of the Constitution and has existed, with varying provisions, continuously from that time to the present. This part defines the types of matters which constitute letters and hence which are subject to the monopoly. It sets forth the types of transportation covered under the mo

nopoly. It also prescribes exceptions to the monopoly.

§ 152.2 What are letters.

(a) Definition of letters. (1) A letter is generally defined as a message in writing and may be written in any language, or in a code. It need not be in handwriting but may be written by a system of checking from a list of printed statements or punching holes or by point print or in raised characters used by the blind.

(2) For purposes of the exercise of the postal monopoly, the term letters may include circulars, as the term circular is defined to be a printed letter which is being sent to several persons in identical terms.

(3) A writing is not a letter unless addressed to or intended for some particular person or concern.

(4) In addition to communications of a purely persona! nature, the word letter includes any matter conveying live, current information between the sender and the addressee. If the sender expects or intends the addressee to act, rely or refrain from acting on the information, the information is live and current.

(5) A letter may be in a sealed envelope, in an unsealed envelope or not in an envelope.

(6) Factors of weight and size do not exempt letters from being subject to the postal monopoly.

(7) A telegraphic message is not a letter.

(b) Rulings on letters. The examples set forth in this part do not comprise every type of matter that would fall either within or without the scope of letters covered by the postal monopoly. The sender or carrier of matter who has any doubt as to whether such matter is or is not a letter may obtain, upon request, a specific ruling from the General Counsel of the Post Office Department. Inquiries should be addressed to the Assistant General Counsel, Opinions Division.

(c) Examples of letters-(1) Orders. Orders for merchandise to be filled by the recipient are letters. Orders are also letters when forwarded by a salesman or a store to the main office to be filled. Orders include requisitions from one department of a business house on another department, when carried over post routes.

(2) Bills and statements of account. Bills and statements of account are letters when sent by business concerns or

persons selling goods or rendering service to their customers. This includes store accounts, premium notices, water bills, bank statements and receipts and receipted statements of account when sent from a creditor to the debtor.

(3) Reports. Reports are letters when sent from the person, office or firm making the report to the person, office, firm or governmental agency to whom the report is made. Examples are:

Income or other tax returns.

Proofs of loss filed by an insured under an insurance policy.

Monthly and weekly reports of business transactions made to a central office.

Reports of insurance agents to their companies' home offices.

An application

(4) Applications. transmitted from the applicant to the person or governmental agency to whom it is made is generally a letter. Examples are:

Application for driver licenses and automobile licenses and other permits. Applications for loans. Contest entries.

(5) Interoffice communications. Any written or printed matter sent between offices of a concern, over post routes, which gives to the addressee office live, current information on which the latter is expected to act, rely or refrain from acting, constitutes a letter. The following are examples of such letters:

Requisitions which are orders from one department to another department within the same organization.

All types of matter sent from a branch store to the main office to supply information on which charges and credits to the branch store or office are made or to verify the accuracy of items in the accounts between the main office and branch office or store.

Retail price lists, catalogs bulletins and notices sent to advise a store or branch office of the price the latter should charge its customers or to advise the latter of discounts, market quotations, and the like.

(d) Examples of matter not letters. Following are examples of matter not classed as letters:

(1) Commercial papers. Commercial papers are not classed as letters since they are valued as evidence of rights of the holder rather than for any information they may carry when shipped from one person to another. Such commercial papers include contracts, stock certificates, promissory notes, bonds and other negotiable securities, insurance policies,

title policies, abstracts of title, mortgages, deeds, leases and articles of incorporation.

(2) Legal papers and documents. Legal papers and documents are not letters. This class of matter is intended for use in law suits or formal quasijudicial proceedings, orders of court and the like.

(3) Official records. Examples of official records which are not letters are: birth and death certificates, election ballots, and tally sheets, lists of registration of voters and certificates to practice certain professions.

(4) Drawings, etc. A picture or other visual representation of a physical thing, actual or projected, would not be a letter. Examples are drawings, blueprints, maps and plat surveys.

(5) Advertising and directory materials. Catalogs are not letters except as stated in paragraph (c) (5) of this section. Directories and unaddressed advertising handbills or circulars are not letters.

(6) Interoffice communications. Examples of interoffice communications which are not letters are:

Carbon copy of a letter previously sent to the same address if it contains no information not in the original.

Matters sent for filing and storage only and not intended for the recipient's own use. Matters sent for auditing to determine whether charges and credits are correct, when the results of the audit are not used to adjust accounts within the organization.

Data sent to a central office for preparation of customers bills if the data is returned to the sender and no part of the information is retained by the central office.

fre

(7) Checks and drafts. Bank checks in their ordinary form containing only the names of the drawer, payee, bank upon which drawn, amount of money, and date of issue are not letters. Checks, notes, and drafts sent by banks to other banks for collection of payment are not letters. Canceled checks and drafts may be returned to the drawer without being classed as letters. Checks issued by creameries to farmer-producers quently bear on their face, or are accompanied by, statements showing the basis for computation of the amount of the check, e. g., the weight, butterfat content, bacterial count, deductions for hauling, and the like. So long as none of the information is extraneous to the check itself, these statements may accompany, or appear on, a check being transmitted by a contract hauler or otherwise outside the mail without either

the check or statement being subject to payment of postage. See § 152.3(c).

(8) Matters sent for auditing or preparation of bills. Freight bills, invoices, paid bills, sales slips, receipts, records of receipts and disbursements and the like which are forwarded for the sole purpose of having them audited internally on behalf of the sender are not letters. Such matter becomes letters when the person or office which receives them takes any corrective action or adjusts accounts between the sender and addressee, or otherwise makes use either of the material forwarded or the results of the audit. This same rule applies to material sent to a central office for the sole purpose of preparing customers statements, unless other use is made or action taken by that central office. The subsequent mailing of the bills to the customers by the central office would not cause the working matter sent to that office to be considered letters. Similarly, matter forwarded for the performance of purely mechanical work such as photostating or mathematical computation would not constitute letters.

(9) Old correspondence and other matters sent for filing, storage, or destruction. Old correspondence, records and any other type of matter sent from one office to another for filing, storage or destruction are not letters since there is no purpose of communicating any intelligence to the addressee. The matter so sent will be considered as a letter if it is sent for the purpose of establishing a file from which the addressee may at some time take information on which he will then act, rely or refrain from acting.

(10) Examination papers. Examination papers forwarded for scoring to a central scoring agency are not regarded as letters provided the scoring agency does not make use of the scores or other information derived from the papers. Examination papers with scores marked on them would normally be considered letters when returned to the school or person who previously sent them for scoring or when forwarded to a third person who may be expected to take action based on the results of the examination. Any later use of the examination papers, after the scoring by the central agency, places them in the category of letters.

(11) Manuscript and news items. Manuscript intended for publication when not accompanied by any matter in the nature of personal correspondence

is not a letter. Mere news matter prepared by press correspondents for the columns of their publications are not letters. News matter to be used for the purpose of radio broadcasting is not a letter.

[26 F.R. 11573, Dec. 6, 1961, as amended at 26 F.R. 12125, Dec. 19, 1961. Redesignated at 31 F.R. 15350, Dec. 8, 1966]

§ 152.3

Permissible carriage of letters.

(a) Exemptions from postal monopoly. Under certain conditions, letters may be carried outside the postal system without payment of U. S. postage.

(b) Current business of carrier. (1) Letters which relate to the current business of a carrier do not come under the postal monopoly. These are letters written by or addressed to officers or employees of the carrier, in their official capacities, on the business of the carrier.

(2) Any business of the carrier is deemed to be its current business when it comes up in such a way as to call for a current communication.

(3) This exemption applies only where the employees of the carrier are used to carry their employers letters between offices but the use of an independent contractor who makes regular trips between any two points on a post route is not permissible.

(4) The different units of a railroad system or other system of carriers, as long as they are separate, independent operating units are, third parties to each other and consequently are not considered a single carrier for the purpose of this exemption.

(c) Cargo documents. (1) A carrier may transport letters which relate exclusively to some part of the cargo of the same conveyance or to some article carried at the same time by the same con. veyance. This exemption permits a carrier to convey, without the payment of postage, letters such as invoices, bills of lading, shippers bills, waybills, freight bills, and the like, when they accompany shipments to which they exclusively relate.

(2) Receipts evidencing delivery of goods by a carrier are not letters.

(3) Live, current information in a letter, extraneous to the shipment it accompanies, takes it out of the exemption for letters which relate to some article carried at the same time.

(d) Carriage without compensation. Letters may be transmitted by private hands without compensation. A person or firm engaged in the transportation of

goods or persons for hire cannot be considered "private hands without compensation." The phrase just quoted denotes transportation of a letter which does not take place in the course of business of the person or firm carrying the letter.

(1) A special

(e) Special messengers. messenger may be employed, for the particular occasion only, to transmit letters when not more than 25 letters are involved. A special messenger is one who at the request of either the sender or the addressee of the letter, picks it up from the sender's home or place of business and carries it to the addressee's home or place of business.

(2) If, however, letters are picked up by one messenger and taken to a central office for delivery by another, neither the messenger picking up the letter nor the messenger delivering it to the addressee could then be considered a special messenger.

(3) This exemption as to the use of special messengers is restricted to isolated instances in which there is no regularity in use by the sender or addressee of the particular messenger or the organization by which he is employed.

(4) A messenger or a carrier operating regularly between fixed points is not a special messenger.

(f) Where postage is paid. (1) Letters may be carried by an individual, express company, or any other person outside the mail to any point within or without the United States provided the conditions specified in this part are followed.

(2) Each letter carried outside the mails must be placed in a sealed envelope bearing the appropriate amount of postage. The amount of postage required must be the same as would have been required had the letter been sent through the mail at the first-class rate or by air if so carried. The amount of postage need not include registry or insurance fees even if the letter is privately insured. If postage is in the form of stamps, they must be canceled with ink by the sender. The sender must write the date of the letter on the envelope, or the person carrying it must write on the envelope the date he received the letter. The name and address of the person for whom the letter is intended must be written on the envelope.

(3) Letters which the sender is entitled to send through the mails without a charge for postage may be sent in a similar manner outside the mails with

out the payment of postage. This would apply in the case of certain official Government mail and mail of certain diplomatic and consular officers of other nations. If the free mailing privilege does not extend to airmail then such letters must bear the appropriate air mail postage, if sent by air express.

(4) It is permissible to establish service for collecting for the addressees letters received at the post office, provided the letters remain unopened. Letters received through the mails at one office of a firm may be forwarded by surface means outside the mails without payment of additional postage so long as they remain unopened. This applies likewise to letters addressed to one firm in care of another to which they are to be forwarded. If any such letters are forwarded by air express or air freight, sufficient additional postage must be placed on each piece of mail to bring the total postage on that piece up to the air mail rate. Moreover, if the letters are opened before they are forwarded, the forwarding of the open letters would be considered a new shipment of the matter. Such forwarding will then be regarded as the transmission of letters upon which additional postage will be due, if they are intended to convey to the ultimate addressee live, current information upon which he may act, rely or refrain from acting.