Federal obligations tagged to couriers and express delivery (NAICS 492110)

What $2.82 billion on this code actually records

The $2,823,672,112.36 figure is the aggregate of contract obligations whose reported NAICS is 492110. USAspending.gov publishes those actions as the government’s official award feed. An obligation is the amount the government has legally committed on the action; it can sit unused, be de-obligated later, or be paid in a different period. Treating the headline as money already spent would mix two different columns in the same public file.

Dividing obligations by the 5,726 awards yields about $493,132 per award. That average is only a ratio of the two packet totals. It does not describe a typical delivery contract, a median task order, or a single carrier’s book of business. High-value indefinite-delivery vehicles and small call orders can sit under the same code, and this packet does not separate them.

How NAICS 492110 is attached to a contract

Couriers and express delivery services, as the Census title for 492110, covers establishments that provide intercity and local delivery of parcels and documents without operating as general freight trucking. On a federal award the code is the industry tag the contracting office reported. It is not a routing number, a tracking number, or a list of zip codes served, and it is not a count of packages.

Assistance awards—grants, cooperative agreements, and similar instruments—often omit NAICS entirely. The 5,726 actions behind this page are the contract slice that carried 492110. Grant dollars for related logistics work, if any, would not appear in this industry total even if the activity looks similar on a program narrative.

Obligations, modifications, and double counting

Award count 5,726 includes base awards and the modifications USAspending.gov stores as separate rows when they carry the same industry tag. A courier contract that is extended, incrementally funded, or partially de-obligated can add more than one row while the net dollars move up or down. The obligation sum is the arithmetic total of those signed amounts, not a count of unique package networks or unique vendors.

What this table is not

This page is not a ranking of private carriers, not a map of federal mail volume, and not an outlay ledger. It does not name recipients, awarding agencies, or places of performance unless those fields appear in the live industry table. The only dollar and count facts used here are the $2,823,672,112.36 obligation total and the 5,726 awards. Freight trucking, postal service, and warehousing sit on other NAICS lines when tagged that way.

Reading the industry hub

The Couriers and Express Delivery Services industry page lists the underlying USAspending.gov contract rows tagged 492110. Use that hub to sort recipients and agencies. The all-industries index places this code next to other six-digit NAICS totals so the $2.82 billion can be compared with neighboring contract categories without treating any of them as cash spent.

Citing courier obligations without mixing logistics codes

Quote $2,823,672,112.36 as USAspending contract obligations on 5,726 awards tagged NAICS 492110. Do not fold in general freight, air cargo, or postal NAICS unless those awards also carry 492110. Express delivery is easy to confuse with the broader transportation sector on a statement of work; the industry table follows the NAICS on the award, not every task listed in the performance work statement.

Because courier contracts are often written as rate schedules and task orders, readers sometimes treat the $2.82 billion as a shipping invoice total. It is not. It is a contract-obligation stock. Option years and delivery orders can raise the recorded commitment before invoices catch up. Keep outlays out of the sentence unless an outlay field is present, which this packet does not provide.

A recurring error is converting 5,726 awards into 5,726 routes or 5,726 vendors. The figure counts procurement records, including modifications that keep the code. One indefinite-delivery vehicle can generate many of those rows. If a later modification recodes the work to freight trucking, dollars can leave 492110. Those movements show up on the live industry page, not in this static guide.

Another error is treating this total as the federal mail budget. USPS and other postal NAICS are separate when tagged that way. 492110 is the courier and express-delivery industry label as reported on contract awards. Quote USAspending.gov, quote obligations, quote 5,726 awards, and stop there unless you open the table for recipients. Assistance without NAICS remains outside the $2,823,672,112.36.

Questions

How much did the federal government obligate under NAICS 492110?

USAspending.gov contract awards tagged Couriers and Express Delivery Services (NAICS 492110) show $2,823,672,112.36 in obligations. That sum is committed contract dollars, not outlays. Assistance awards without a NAICS code are outside this total. USAspending.gov is the source for the $2,823,672,112 obligation stock and the 5,726 contract awards tagged COURIERS AND EXPRESS DELIVERY SERVICES (NAICS 492110). Assistance awards that omit NAICS are outside both figures.

How many federal awards use courier NAICS 492110?

The indexed file contains 5,726 contract awards with NAICS 492110. The count includes modifications that keep the same industry tag. It is not a count of unique vendors or of parcels delivered. Treat 5,726 as an award-record count. Keep the citation on contract obligations: $2,823,672,112 on 5,726 awards coded NAICS 492110. Outlays, grants without NAICS, and unit counts are not in the packet that produced this page.

Does the courier total include grants?

No. NAICS codes are reported on contract awards. Grants and other assistance often lack NAICS, so they are excluded from the $2,823,672,112.36 and from the 5,726-award count on this industry page. The industry hub lists the underlying USAspending.gov rows. This answer restates only packet facts: NAICS 492110, $2,823,672,112 obligated, and 5,726 awards for COURIERS AND EXPRESS DELIVERY SERVICES.

Is $2.82 billion what agencies paid to couriers?

No. Obligations are legal commitments on contract actions. Payments, refunds, and timing differences are outlays, which this NAICS total does not report. A de-obligation would reduce the net without describing a delivery. Do not treat 5,726 as establishments or $2,823,672,112 as cash disbursed. Both numbers describe USAspending.gov contract actions tagged NAICS 492110 (COURIERS AND EXPRESS DELIVERY SERVICES), not assistance and not outlays.