Neither Snow nor Rain nor Volume Halts the Mail
“As long as there are postmen, life will have zest.”—William James, U.S. philosopher (1842-1910)
ALMOST everyone has an annoying tale to tell about mail service. The letter he mailed arrived weeks or even months later than expected, postage rates are rising too fast, or the line at the post office is exasperating. Back in October 1966, catastrophe threatened a postal system. A U.S. Postal Service spokesman told Awake! that “the then largest U.S. postal facility, at the crossroads in Chicago, was virtually shut down when it became jammed and was unable to handle the mail.”
What has been done to ensure that the mail flow does not stop and that your letter will get through? Is there anything you can do to improve the service you receive? Have letter-delivery methods and dependability changed significantly over the centuries?
Ancient Postal Service
The earliest organized postal services were exclusively for governmental use. Such systems existed in ancient China, Egypt, Assyria, Persia, and Greece. The Roman postal system was named cursus publicus, literally “public way”; however, it was primarily the government’s exclusive service. Interestingly, letters by the Bible writer Paul to the congregations in Ephesus and Colossae, and to Philemon were sent by private arrangements and not by the Roman government postal service.—Ephesians 6:21, 22; Colossians 4:7-9; Philemon 21, 22.
While transportation and delivery of correspondence changed very little until the 19th century, views about controlling or eliminating private mail services began to evolve earlier. Why? Because authorities felt a need for jurisdiction over private communications. In his book The Universal Postal Union, George A. Codding, Jr., offers two major reasons for the creation of a government monopoly over postal services. First, the revenue was “an excellent means of subsidizing the official service.” Second, the security provided was an aid in controlling communications by the State’s enemies.
Thus, the French Royal Post began to handle some public mail in 1464. In 1635, Charles I of England opened the Royal Mail service to the populace. Other governments acted similarly and thereby monopolized postal service, taking control of this exchange between people.
Britain regulated the early American system, much as the Roman Empire had extended its postal network into Britain. The Roman system duplicated much of the Persian arrangement, which was a postal system of mounted couriers working in relays that was instituted in the sixth century B.C.E. Thus, characteristics of many postal systems can be traced to Persia.
The colonial American postal system officially began handling overseas mail in 1639, and domestic mail, between Boston and New York City, in 1673. That short-lived mail route came to be called Boston Post Road, now part of U.S. Highway 1. By the middle of the 19th century, mail was being transported by stagecoach, steamboat, and railroad. Delivery of mail to San Francisco, California, from New York City took about a month or more by ship and much longer by stagecoach.
The Pony Express
To speed up transcontinental delivery in the United States, something other than stagecoach or ship was needed. What would solve the problem? The centuries-old method of post rider and horse was used. History of the U.S. Postal Service 1775-1984 quotes newspaper advertisements from March 1860:
“Wanted: Young, skinny, wiry fellows not over 18. Must be expert riders willing to risk death daily. Orphans preferred.”
Those hired “had to swear on a Bible not to ‘cuss,’ fight, or abuse their animals and to conduct themselves honestly.” This was the famous pony express, which reduced the delivery time to ten days on the 2,000 mile [3,200 km] route between St. Joseph, Missouri, and the west coast of the United States. Riding at top speed for 10 to 15 miles [15 to 25 km], then changing horses without delay, those young riders raced over mountains, plains, and rivers in all kinds of weather. Throughout the existence of the pony express, because of having the fastest horses, the daring couriers outraced Indians and highwaymen; however, one rider was killed.
Legend has magnified this bold postal service, which ran only from April 3, 1860, until October 26, 1861. It went out of business with the beginning of transcontinental telegraph service, thus ending one of the most colorful chapters in American postal history.
Modern Methods
Let us mail a letter today and see how it is handled. Delivery time may vary depending on the way you make use of the service.
As you finish your business for the day, the accumulated correspondence is mailed. Since this is the routine for most of us, a flood of mail enters the postal stream in the latter part of the day. Thus, mailing earlier in the day gives you the advantage of a few hours and puts your pieces in front of the daily tide. In 1991, the average daily volume of this mail flow in the United States was 454 million pieces, with 13.3 million for New York City; France, 71 million pieces, with 5.5 million for Paris; Japan, 62.5 million, with 17 million for Tokyo; and Britain, 60 million.
Letters mailed at a deposit box on the street or in a small post office are brought to a larger post office. Depositing your mail just prior to collection times and, if practical, near the larger offices improves delivery time.
At the local post office, your letter is bagged, and then it is trucked to a postal facility called a sectional center, where automatic mail-sorting equipment is used. Here, by means of ingeniously designed machines, letters are flipped and turned automatically as they proceed on conveyor belts through culling, facing, canceling, sorting, and stacking. One such device, called a facer-canceler machine, zips through 27,000 letters an hour for cancellation and postmarking.
During the afternoon and on into the night, the outgoing mail is sorted. Letters with easily readable addresses—typed, printed, or hand-lettered—may be sorted by machine. Newer machines decipher two lines containing ZIP or postal code; city, state, or province; and street address.
Such machines and related equipment can automatically “read” addresses and print special mailing codes on thousands of letters an hour. First-class letter mail that cannot be processed by machines must be manually sorted, at an average of 800 pieces an hour. An easily readable address, with a ZIP code in the United States (postal or postcode in many other countries) allows your letter to be processed by the faster, more efficient methods.
Outgoing mail is dispatched by air or surface transportation. First-class mail is normally delivered overnight to specified cities and sectional centers, in two days to locally designated states, and in three days to anywhere else in the United States. In Britain, 90 percent of first-class mail should be delivered the next working day and 97.4 percent of second-class mail by the third day. French postal surveys published in May 1992 show that 81 percent of domestic letters were delivered overnight and that 96.3 percent of postal items were delivered within two days, excluding Sundays and holidays. Thus, late at night this outgoing mail becomes incoming at area-mail processing facilities and then at the destination post office. Through the night and into early morning, incoming mail is sorted for delivery.
Larger postal customers, such as the Watchtower Society, prepare their mail so that the post office can accept it by tractor-trailer load at the sender’s plant. This mail is transported by the post office directly cross-country to postal delivery personnel. Postal services are making greater use of competitive means of communications, such as electronic mail (E-mail; data sent by computer over telecommunications lines). The French system dispatched ten million pieces of remote printing (E-mail) last year.
Though postal procedures may vary among countries, most of the world’s mail is processed similarly to what we have described for the U.S. Postal Service, which handles 40 percent of the world’s mail volume.
Other Postal Services
Postal systems provide more services than just mail processing. A U.S. post office will help you obtain a passport. You may bank in a Japanese post office or with the British Girobank (formerly owned by the British postal service). Also, mailed merchandise may be insured or registered to cover the cost if lost or damaged. If a mailed piece requires only proof of mailing or delivery, sending it certified may cost less than if registered. People may obtain life insurance from the Japanese postal service.
Upon request, some postal services, such as that of the United States, will provide you with available address-correction information. Write “Address Correction Requested” or “Do Not Forward” on the front of the envelope just below the return address. At no additional charge, first-class mail will be returned to you with the new address (if less than one year old) or other reason for nondelivery.
For these and other services, the world is very dependent on the postal system. The report Evaluation of the United States Postal Service says: “The Postal Service is doing a good job handling an enormous volume of mail, but the errors which cannot be eliminated should continue to be acknowledged so that the public will know what it is realistic to expect of the mails.” In the United States, if just 5 percent of the nearly 250,000,000 pieces of first-class daily volume is delayed, it amounts to over 12,000,000 pieces each day. This makes for many complaints of late delivery.
Troublesome economic conditions have affected postal systems. Rising rates, damaged items, delayed mail, and modern technology fostered increased competition with government-controlled services. Although innovative handling methods have improved mail processing, the pressures on all institutions make critical times for the postal systems. The U.S. Postal Service had a revenue deficit of some $1,500,000,000 for 1991. Drastic measures, such as large mail-rate increases and personnel reductions, may be necessary to continue the present service.
From a trickle in ancient times to a flooding stream today, the mail flow continues despite the problems, thus satisfying an inherent need to communicate.—Contributed by a postal worker.
[Box/Picture on page 18]
Mail Delivery Persian-Style
The setting is the ancient empire of Persia. Written documents were carefully prepared, officially sealed, and dispatched by the government’s postal service. Many lives would be lost if the orders were not delivered immediately and acted upon promptly. But how would the mail be delivered? The “letters were sent by mounted couriers riding on horses from the royal stables. . . . So the couriers, mounted on their royal horses, were dispatched posthaste at the king’s urgent command,” states The New English Bible, at Esther 8:10, 14.
Those dependable relay riders, with horses stationed at approximately 14-mile [23 km] intervals, were the preferred means to deliver King Ahasuerus’ counterdecree that would save the Jews from genocide during the fifth century B.C.E. Historian Herodotus said that these letter carriers were not “hindered from accomplishing at their best speed the distance which they have to go, either by snow, or rain, or heat, or by the darkness of night.” This was the everyday governmental communications system that ran throughout the Persian Empire.
[Picture on page 17]
Machines automatically read and sort thousands of letters an hour
[Credit Line]
USPS Photo