In early March 1970 most of the postal employees of New York City went on strike causing near commercial paralysis. Postmaster General Winton Blount responded to this emergency by issuing a special order of March 18, 1970 temporarily suspending the Post Office Department's monopoly on carriage of first-class mail. The founders of the Albany Letter Express responded to this challenge by forming a company for the delivery of mail in and around Albany, NY.
