The Dutch East India Company operated the Postal service, which was not meant for the public but for official use.

They re-organised the postal service and others eventually established a permanent Post Office in Colombo in 1882.

The only evidence of a British postal service before 1815 is a "Colombo Post Free" handstamp used on a soldier's letter in 1809, when British Royal Artillery troops were engaged to subdue Sri Vikrama Rajasinha, the king of Kandy (1798–1815), whose inland territory had never been under the influence of the Dutch.

On August 20, 2024, Sri Lanka's Postal Department released the world's longest stamp, measuring 205 millimetres (8.1 in).

The year 1892 saw the first "Travelling Post Office" doing its run between Colombo and Peradeniya, a suburb of Kandy.

Today Sri Lanka Post uses a fleet of Japanese vehicles painted in the traditional red.

The mails are carried today by railway, public and private omni-buses, and the department's fleet of vehicles.