Delivery service

“ An elaborate and efficient delivery service must be maintained by the grocers, and many small deliveries are made each day at an actual loss to the dealer. A large proportion of the grocery-store patrons buy on credit and pay when it becomes convenient. ”

“ Modernized handling of local mail now brings next-day delivery to 168 million people in our population centers, expanded carrier service now accommodates 9.3 million families in the growing suburbs, and 1.4 million families have been added to the rural delivery service. ”

“ The per capita cost in the Rural Delivery Service has been a matter of considerable interest to those who are following the progress and extension of this branch of the public service. The great advance which has been made in this service and the still greater extent to which it is proposed to extend it, embracing ultimately all patrons wherever located, naturally raises the question of cost as a whole and the cost per patron. ”

“ To those who are now enjoying the advantage of free delivery service it seems that it is the natural thing, and it is difficult for them to realize how a busy community could get along without it, yet as a matter of fact it was not established until 1863, when it was experimentally installed in forty-nine cities, with but 449 carriers, which number is about a seventh of those employed at the present time in New York alone. ”

“ Each Party shall ensure that any authority responsible for regulating express delivery services is not accountable to any supplier of express delivery services, and that the decisions and procedures that the authority adopts are impartial, non-discriminatory and transparent with respect to all express delivery service suppliers in its territory. ”

“ It applies also to a great part of delivery service. If you live in a crowded part of any city, you see a dozen milk wagons pass your door every morning, doing the work which could be done exactly as well by one. ”

“ Persons living on the rural routes desired to take advantage of the new service for the delivery of small parcels of merchandise of all kinds, food-stuffs, tobacco, dry goods, etc., which they would order from the local store-keeper by post or by telephone. ”

“ The Department having adopted a rule to the effect that the rural delivery service would only be established along reasonably good roads, and that a carrier need not go out unless the roads were in fit condition spurred the inhabitants up to better attention of the roads for after a man once got in the habit of receiving his mail daily he wanted it regularly. ”

“ For the delivery routes alone, and taking no account of the sizable force employed in the upkeep of vehicles and horses, there are employed, in the city service of the store, one hundred and ninety drivers and chauffeurs, with one hundred and eighty-six helpers, and in the suburban service, seventy-four drivers and eighty-six helpers. ”

“ The great success of rural delivery is peculiarly the farmers triumph. He is now on a par with his neighbor in the cities in all that enterprising postal service can give. Taken both together, the widely admitted success of the Parcel Post as well as the rural delivery, a chapter of achievement has been written of which the Department is justly proud and against which criticism can find no ground for righteous complaint. ”

“ The cost of living will be reduced, it is stated, by eliminating useless and expensive operation in the postal means of communication between producer and consumer; will permit the producer to continue production and the labor incident thereto, instead of suspending production or labor while conveying produce to consumers, and will extend the postal zone of collection-and-delivery service in the vicinity of large cities to the point where the actual farmer-producer is domiciled rather than where only suburban residents and nonproducers live. ”

“ The rural carriers, for instance, must be familiar with the regulations that cover the delivery of mail, registration of letters, taking applications for money-orders, sale of stamps, supplies, etc., but the inspector must also know all of these and also be able to determine when the establishment of a route is warranted, to lay out and fix the schedules and prepare a map and description of the route, also measure the routes if the length is in dispute, inspect the service, ascertain whether it is properly performed, and give necessary instructions to the carriers and postmasters. ”

“ But the claim of the residents of small towns to equal privileges with more favored localities was at length recognized and village delivery which was established and put into operation in 1912, was extended until 280 of such towns now have this accommodation, employing 400 carriers. The entrance salary paid village delivery carriers is at the rate of $600 per annum, and increased to $690 per annum after twelve months of satisfactory service. Only communities where the annual post office receipts amount to $5,000 are entitled to this service. ”

“ In New York City, however, this is done solely by employes in the service. At free delivery offices postmasters will, from time to time, employ as many messengers as in their judgment may be necessary to secure prompt delivery of special matter. None but trustworthy boys over 13 years of age should be employed. The force of special delivery messengers in each office should be so arranged that a suitable number may always be on hand to secure immediate delivery of all special delivery matter at any time within the prescribed hour of the day. ”

“ The subject of Rural Free Delivery occupies so much public attention both in the press and among the people, and the Department has shown such interest in the matter and done so much to make the service popular and attractive as a public measure, that it is worthy of some considerable space in a work devoted entirely to postal affairs. Aside from tabular work which has no proper place in descriptive accounts of departmental operations, a very good idea of what rural delivery is and aims to accomplish, may be gathered from the articles which follow this introductory reference. ”

“ Almost the entire expense incident to the operation of the rural mail service is in the compensation paid to carriers. On account of their unusual duties, which include the sale of stamps and stamped paper, registration of mail, transaction of money-order business, etc., duties not required of city delivery carriers, it is stated that carriers maintaining a motor vehicle of the capacity required by the Department, who work eight hours a day and carry perhaps as much as 50,000 pieces of mail a month, should receive not less than $2,000 per annum. ”

“ Postmasters of free delivery offices will cause a careful inspection of carriers’ uniforms to be made twice a year. A carrier should not be required to buy a new suit or any part thereof, unless the postmaster, after inspection, decides that it is necessary in order to maintain a uniform and neat appearance of the force. ”

“ The general rule is that it is the responsibility of the carrier, as part of the transportation service covered by the line-haul rate, to 'deliver' the goods by placing them in such a position as to make them accessible to the consignee. Normally unloading is not a part of the delivery and is performed by the consignee. In accordance with these principles, the railroad spots the car on the team track in its yards in the destination city, and the consignee is given appropriate free time in which to unload. ”

“ It may in some instances be advantageous to utilize for parcels the service provided for the transmission and delivery of letters. An organization reaching to all parts of the country is ready to hand, and one which, in rural districts especially, is often not employed to its full capacity. ”

“ This advice of delivery shall be returned to him by the quickest route (air or surface) .
2 When the sender inquires about an advice of delivery which he has not received within a normal period, a second charge shall not be collected.
Article 21
Delivery to the addressee in person
1 At the sender's request, and in the service between those administrations which have given their consent, registered items, recorded delivery items and insured items shall be delivered to the addressee in person. ”

“ The statement explains that it is often necessary to coordinate arrival of inbound shipments with production schedules at factories. As an example, it cites a situation in which only one of the currently certificated carriers has proven able to meet the delivery schedules, even though other carriers were made aware of the need for 'timed' deliveries. The one satisfactory carrier cannot transport the entire load. However, the statement does not identify the carriers whose service has been unsatisfactory; it does not say what efforts were made to have them improve their service ”

“ A large majority of the 25,000,000 persons served by the rural postal delivery are still without express service. There is still little opportunity for the direct transmission of foodstuffs from the producer to the consumer which at the present time presents the most hopeful method of attacking the soaring cost of food. ”

“ Attention is called elsewhere to the benefit of motor vehicle service in rural delivery, and it is now proposed to introduce this advantage in the star-route service as well. Until a short while ago there was no authority for any particular form of conveyance to be used in this connection. ”

“ When the comparatively comfortable conditions under which city delivery is conducted is considered, and the proportionate difference in appropriation taken into account, it will appear that the excess of cost in rural delivery is no greater than might naturally be expected from the peculiar nature of the service, the territory to be covered, and the almost insurmountable conditions with which it has to contend. Indeed, it is a matter of surprise that the cost of service per capita under the circumstances is so small. ”

“ There can be no doubt that with regard to this collect and delivery the postal department is the only agency to which we can look for a service sufficiently extensive to be really efficient. It only remains to observe that with regard to the farming part of the country the service already exists in the form of rural free delivery, equipped and paid for, and actually waiting with empty wagons to receive and execute the work. ”

“ Rural delivery in which the rural resident is so greatly interested will profit most by this liberal government provision, it being originally intended for post road purposes, of which rural delivery is now the principal and most important part. The rural life of the country is to be bettered in every way by the spread of this means of postal communication. The Post Office Department is always ready to listen to every suggestion which makes for greater comfort and convenience in this direction, and to act promptly when resulting advantages can be shown. ”

“ When a carrier completes his delivery on his route and does not return to the post office the time recorded on his trip report for returning and ending on that trip must be the time of his last piece of mail.
Where carriers are unable to deliver all mail matter taken out on the last trip of the day without making overtime, they must return to the post office within the eight hours prescribed with the understanding that they make a full report to the superintendent of the station, and a full statement will also be made on the trip report of the day. ”

“ The Department has many eyes but cannot see all and know all, and this is where outside assistance can be of great advantage, and would be most gladly welcomed. Postal patrons are the working partners of the Postmaster General in all that concerns the improvement and extension of the service, and if they will take the same active interest that he does and cooperate with the Fourth Assistant Postmaster General, in whose Bureau this rural delivery work is centered, great advances in all directions may be readily made. ”

“ Patrons who repeatedly fail to respond promptly to the carrier’s ring must be reported to the postmaster. Carriers must not enter any house while on their trips, except in the discharge of their official duties. Mail matter must not be delivered by carriers which has not passed through the post office or station with which they are connected. Mail matter intrusted to carriers must not be exhibited to persons other than those addressed, except on the order of the postmaster or some one authorized to act for him. Letters for delivery must not be carried by carriers in their pockets. ”

“ In the answers received it was shown, for example, that in Great Britain there was substantially a house-to-house rural delivery, only the most inaccessible domiciles being left unvisited. The English rural postman, traveling chiefly on foot, walks from 15 to 18 miles a day, for an average pay of 18 shillings, or $4.50 a week. A paternal government provides him with a uniform, gives him $5 a year to buy shoes, furnishes him medical attendance when sick, and permits him to retire on a small pension after ten years of faithful service. ”

“ Selection of persons for appointment as substitute letter carriers must be made by the postmaster from the carriers’ eligible register in the manner prescribed by the Civil Service Rules and the nominations submitted to the First Assistant Postmaster General (Division of Free Delivery) , on Form 1101, together with the certificate for original appointment, Postal Service, Form 145, issued by the local Civil Service Board. ”