The conveyance of mail in Austria originated roughly 2,000 years ago. Even back then, the Roman "Cursus Publicus" ensured that the military and administration in the Roman province of Noricum received periodic information from their Roman "headquarters".

However, there was no regular postal service in the Middle Ages. It wasn't until the age of great discoveries and inventions in the late 15th century that a fully operational postal system was built, which is quite rightly regarded as the precursor of today's postal system.

In the late 15th century, Emperor Maximilian I created a horseback messenger service, linking Brussels to France and to Italy via Innsbruck and to Vienna via Speyer and Augsburg. The Emperor opened this messenger service to private mail as well.  This new periodic mail service quickly became a success. While members of the Princely House of Thurn and Taxis built the postal system in the Empire, the counts and countesses of Thurn-Valsassina and Taxis did the same in Tyrol and in Further Austria. In 1624, the Paar family was granted the right to operate postal services in most Austrian crownlands. However, this privilege ended when Emperor Charles VI declared the postal service a government monopoly in 1722. Under the rule of Maria Theresa and Joseph II, stagecoaches started operating periodically, paving the way for regular postal services.

The 18th century was a time of major innovations in the area of mail transport. Among others, Austrians greatly contributed to this development. Georg Khumer, a royal and imperial postmaster in Friesach, introduced the "modern-day" postmark in 1787. However, this pioneer's innovative idea was not incorporated into the general postal regulations until eighty years later.

Letter boxes, money orders, cash-on-delivery items and, last not but least, postage stamps were all introduced after 1800. Laurenz Koschier, an Austrian accounting official, had submitted his concept for the introduction of stamps as early as in 1836. He, like many other innovative persons, turned out to be a man ahead of his time.

Postage stamps did not get a lot of attention in Austria until the first ones were issued in England in 1840. The first Austrian stamps were issued in 1850. This made Austria the 15th country to introduce the "adhesive tax postmarks". The first postmark that provided precise information about the date and location was introduced in 1867. In the second half of the 19th century, precursors of today's postcards were printed, followed by picture postcards printed shortly afterwards.

In, 1869, Emanuel Herrmann, a professor of economics in Klagenfurt, had an idea of far-reaching consequence: he conceived a never-before-seen item, simple "postcards" that were no larger than an envelope and that were to be "transported as open items by the postal service". This idea was received enthusiastically. The postal service starting printing "correspondence cards", as they were called, that very year, in 1869. They were a resounding success: 1.4 million cards were sold in the first month alone! From 1885 onwards, private persons were authorized to print postcards as well. This was the beginning of the worldwide success of picture postcards.

Rudimentary international postal services have existed since the early days of postal systems, in the 15th century. Since there very many small nation-states, international postal service remained a complicated affair in subsequent centuries.

It wasn't until the mid 19th century that many authorities embraced the concept of coordinating postal services with other countries. At the suggestion of the Postmaster General of the United States of America, an international postal congress took place from 11 May to 8 June 1863 in Paris. The 15 participating countries, including Austria, laid down guidelines for the conclusion of bilateral postal treaties in 31 paragraphs. The "Universal Postal Union" was founded in 1874. All member states now formed one large postal area.

In 1883, the Postal Savings Bank was established, whose importance as a strategic partner of Austrian Post is now greater than ever. After telegraphy was invented in 1847, great progress was made in the area of telecommunications in the late 19th century. In 1881, the first telephone network went into operation in Austria.

Mail delivery made great progress in the 19th century, especially because larger distances could be covered by rail. However, negotiations about a collaboration between the postal service and the railway company were long and tedious. Time passed and it wasn't until 1 August 1850 that the first "royal and imperial post office on wheels" went into operation servicing the route from Vienna to Oderberg. In 1914, as many as 700 cars were in use for railroad mail service. Another interesting fact is that Postbus services were first introduced in 1907.

Mail was not only transported by land, but also by air as soon as the first airworthy airplanes were built. As was so often the case, military interests speeded up communication processes. Hence, the first airmail service, in 1915, delivered mostly combat orders and strategically important war information. Austria's first civilian airmail service started operating in 1918, serving Vienna and Lvov. At the beginning, airmail service was restricted to Europe. From 1928, airmail became available for overseas mail as well.

Since mail delivery largely depended on available means of transport, resourceful postal officers invented the so-called "pneumatic post system", which started operating in 1875 in Vienna with the purpose of moving cablegrams and, subsequently, telegrams. A large network of tubes linking post offices located at a distance ranging between 1 and 3 kilometres of each other was built. The pneumatic post system was used to move messages in tubes, which was much faster then the traditional means of transport. At the beginning, only 10 postal offices were connected to the system, but in 1913, as many as 53 offices were connected and the total length of tubes used for this purpose reached 825 kilometres. While the Vienna pneumatic post was damaged only slightly during World War I, the entire system was destroyed during World War II. At the same time, important progress was made in the field of telecommunications. After 1945, telecommunications became too strong a competitor and the pneumatic mail service was discontinued in 1956.

Since 1986, letters and parcels sent via EMS (short for Express Mail Service) have been the first priority in all stages of the transport process, using the quickest means of transport available. They are also handled as a first priority at customs. Austrian Post currently ships approximately 1.1 million EMS items per year.

This is yet further proof that Austrian Post has kept pace with the technological advancements of the 20th century as well, always pursuing its goal of providing its customers with even quicker delivery and even better service.