THE PARCEL POST
Out of very small beginnings many great commercial enterprises have
arisen, and the Parcel Post is not the only big business which sprang
into being in a cellar. In the basement of the old General Post Office
at St. Martin's le Grand in the year 1883 the Parcel Post began its
work, and though it speedily outgrew this limited accommodation, not
even the most optimistic of its supporters could have dreamed that in
less than thirty years the General Post Office would be dealing annually
with 118 million parcels, and that instead of a basement, many great
buildings would be required in which to transact the business.
In 1880 a Postal Conference was held at Paris with the view of creating
an International Parcel Post, and at that Conference the British Post
Office was represented, although, having then no Inland Parcel Post, it
was unable to enter into any international agreement. But the example of
foreign nations undoubtedly stimulated the energies of English
officials, and in the two following years negotiations were carried on
with the railway companies which finally resulted in an arrangement, to
which legal effect was given by an Act of Parliament passed on the 18th
August 1882, that the companies should receive eleven-twentieths of the
postage collected upon all parcels carried by railway. It was from the
outset intended to link the Inland to the International Parcel Post as
soon as might be possible.
In the early days no parcel weighing over 7 lbs. could be sent by Parcel
Post, and the charge for a parcel of this weight was 1s. To-day a 7 lb.
parcel can be sent for 7d., and parcels weighing up to 11 lbs. are
accepted. The charge for 11 lbs. is now 11d. The reduction in charges
was a part of the Diamond Jubilee Reforms of 1897. The minimum charge of
3d. for a parcel not weighing over 1 lb. has remained unchanged since
1883.
The dimensions of a parcel must not exceed 3 feet 6 inches in length nor
a total of 6 feet in length and girth combined. Ladies' hats are sent by
the Parcel Post in large numbers, and grave fears were at one time
entertained, when the hats were growing larger week by week, that the
General Post Office would have to close its doors to these enormities.
They were approaching perilously near the limit of 6 feet length and
girth combined. It is difficult at all times to find out what determines
a change of fashion; it is possible in this instance that the Parcel
Post regulations may have influenced those mysterious individuals who
decide what ladies are to wear; anyhow, the situation was saved by the
introduction of “the pudding basin” hat, and though the large hat did
not disappear, high tide in size had been reached.
In its early beginnings the Parcel Post was confined to the United
Kingdom, but in 1885 it was extended to some of the Colonies and British
dependencies, to India, Gibraltar and Egypt, to Malta, the Straits
Settlements, Hong Kong, some of the West Indies, and South Africa. In
the following year business was begun with Germany. Belgium, and
Constantinople, and other continental countries were soon added to those
we exchanged parcels with. Canada joined the system also in 1886, These
foreign extensions were not always considered successes by the public.
An indignant business man, complaining of the loss of parcels sent by
him to Persia, wrote: “The Parcel Post Service was evidently established
in Persia with the object of providing the officials of that country
with food and clothing. The only articles which appear to reach their
destination are the publications of the Religious Tract Society.”
We are accustomed to see in the windows of suburban houses cards bearing
the letters C.P. or L.P.D., indicating that the carts of certain
carrying agencies are required to call, but we should probably
experience something in the nature of a shock if we saw in the windows a
card lettered P.P. or G.R. to indicate that the Parcel Postman was to
call. There is an accepted tradition with the public as well as with
officials that the Post Office does not advertise. Mr. Fawcett was
Postmaster-General when the Parcel Post was organised, and he broke
through that tradition not only as regards the Parcel Post but also in
dealing with the Post Office Savings Bank; and in the early days of the
Parcel Post, cards were distributed to householders with the request
that they should be placed in the windows when the Parcel Post cart was
required to call. The cards were coloured with the Post Office red, and
the lettering was white.
The chief Parcel Office is at Mount Pleasant, Clerkenwell. It is a
district rich in historical associations. Here was the famous Bagnigge
Wells, where Londoners used to stroll on summer evenings to drink a dish
of tea and to enjoy the humours and fashions of the town. Here also
stood the Coldbath Fields Prison, and gradually, as buildings surrounded
the jail, the district lost prestige as a health resort. The prison
authorities doubtless realised this, and decided to seek purer air for
their 2000 visitors, and they removed their headquarters further into
the country. The prison was thus thrown on the market, and after a
period of negotiations the General Post Office took possession with the
intention of erecting a pile of Government buildings on the site. The
Parcel Post had rapidly outgrown its cramped quarters at St. Martin's le
Grand, and in 1887 the business was transferred to the prison buildings.
For some years the chief Parcel Sorting Office in Great Britain was
located in the old prison treadwheel house behind massive and gloomy
walls. The khaki-clad, barefaced gentry had departed to their country
residence, and the huge treadwheels had been removed to make way for the
Parcel Post.
But the prison was very quickly demolished and gave way to a handsome
Sorting Office, the floor space of which when completed was to cover two
acres. The Parcel Post took possession of the new building in October
1892. It is always difficult to transact any business in a building
constructed for quite another purpose, and the conditions of service in
the prison buildings had not been exactly comfortable. Spacious yards
surround the Post Office buildings, and in these yards platforms have
been built giving direct access to the Sorting Office. Post Office vans
arrive in one yard loaded with receptacles containing parcels collected
from post offices in the City and other parts of London, or sent up from
the provinces and brought here from the railway termini. The loads are
discharged on to the platform and conveyed by porters into the Sorting
Office. In another yard on the opposite side of the building other vans
arrive empty, and back up to the platform to receive their loads of
parcels for conveyance to other parts of London or to railway stations
for despatch to provincial towns.
In the early days the parcels were chiefly packed in wicker hampers with
heavy fastenings, but the weight and cost of these receptacles rendered
it necessary to find something lighter. Many experiments were made, and
at last a receptacle was adopted with a wicker body and a canvas top,
which required no metal fastenings, as the canvas top was tied with
string and sealed with wax. The latest improvement on this is the
substitution of a leaden seal for the old wax sealing. Even this much
lighter receptacle is considered too heavy and costly for the conveyance
of ordinary parcels, and canvas sacks of extra durability are now being
generally used for the conveyance of parcels across London and to and
from provincial towns. Parcels of a fragile nature when sent by railway
are still packed in wicker receptacles for greater security.
The public are advised to affix a label marked “Fragile” to any parcel
which requires more than ordinary care in handling, and from time to
time wonderful examples of fragile parcels have been met with. A pair of
boots wrapped in brown paper has been so described, so have a plum
pudding in a cloth, a basket of fish, a box of butter, a volume of the
_Encyclopedia Britannica_, a York ham, an iron bolt wrapped in
corrugated paper, and a roll of blankets.
Wicker receptacles are not suitable for the service with the Colonies:
the parcels would not be sufficiently protected during the long voyage
and railway journey. For this traffic parcels are packed in tightly
fitting boxes unless the contents can safely be sent in sacks made of
double canvas.
As the practice increased of packing parcels in canvas sacks rather than
in wicker baskets, difficulties were experienced in finding supports for
the sacks during the process of packing. Every schoolboy knows that a
basket stands on its own bottom, but an empty sack falls flat. Officials
with a mechanical turn of mind vied with one another in suggesting how
to evade or to get round this natural law—in other words, how to support
the sacks—and eventually the Dockree support was chosen. This consists
of four iron arms extended at right angles from a pedestal, each arm
being constructed to support a sack at full length and with the mouth
open. An improved pattern of this holder, capable of supporting eight
open-mouthed sacks at one time, has recently been introduced. A sorter
is thus able to sort into eight mouths at once without any of the
stooping which was unavoidable when the sacks lay limp on the floor.
Let me now explain the system of sorting. The majority of people
probably never give a thought as to the happenings of a parcel which
they have posted: they leave it in faith on the counter and the
wonderful Post Office sends it direct to its destination. That is
probably their idea. Supposing you have left your parcel on the public
counter of King Edward's Building, what happens next? The parcel is
taken to the despatching room to wait the arrival of the van which will
convey it in a sack to the Parcel Office at Mount Pleasant. It will
there be turned out on a long sorting-table which has a sunken surface,
after the fashion of a scullery sink, the well of which is lined with
zinc. Your parcel is in the company of others, intended for all parts of
the world, and the first step is to get the parcels to the various parts
of the office from which they will be despatched to other destinations.
Along the whole length of one side of the table is a wooden framework or
sack holding the empty baskets. These ten baskets are labelled Scotch,
Irish, Paddington, Foreign and Colonial, Delivery, Liverpool Street,
Euston, King's Cross, Waterloo and London Bridge, Town, and the sorters
stand between these baskets and the table laden with parcels. They pick
up the parcels from the table and place them in the respective baskets.
Full baskets are carried by a porter to another part of the office,
where the second stage of the sorting is to be gone through. Here the
parcels are turned out on to another table similar to the one already
described. Let us suppose that your parcel is in the basket labelled
“Euston.” There are twelve baskets on the sorting rack at the Euston
division table, and they are labelled to the large centres known as
“Roads” and also to the “Aylesbury Coach” and to “Blind” as follows:
Chester, Carlisle, Preston, Rugby, Stafford, Blind, Watford, Manchester,
Birmingham, Liverpool, Shrewsbury, Aylesbury Branch.
Each of these centres or “Roads” contains a group of towns, and the
Aylesbury Coach “Road” covers all places served by the coach. The basket
labelled “Blind” is to receive all parcels which have reached the Euston
division table in error, through having been mis-sorted at the first
stage, and also any parcels which bear insufficient or doubtful
addresses. The business of the sorter at this stage is to put the
parcels on to the proper “Road,” and unless he has thoroughly learnt not
only the groups of towns on each “Road” but also the numerous smaller
places subordinate to these towns, he will cause trouble at the third or
final stage of the sorting. When these baskets are filled with parcels
they are taken to their respective “Roads,” and then the final process
of making up the mails takes place. The sorter at “the Road” receives
the basket of parcels proper to his centre, and then he sorts the
parcels for the various towns included in his district. He may have as
many as a dozen mails to prepare for despatch within a few minutes of
each other, and this means that he has to sort his parcels into twelve
different receptacles. These are close round him, and the advantage to
the sorter of having his sacks supported at full length will now be
understood.
Any parcels which have been mis-sorted to the officer on “the Road” have
to be placed on a shelf, and are subsequently returned to the
sorting-table to be put into their proper channel. This means that they
may miss their proper mail, and the importance of obtaining reliable men
for the sorting of the second stage is great.
The sorter at “the Road,” having packed his sacks or hampers, has to
prepare a bill for each receptacle, and this bill, when filled up, is
put in a pocket provided in the receptacle. The receptacle is then tied,
sealed, and sent off. The bill gives particulars of the number of the
receptacle, the offices of despatch and destination, the time of
despatch, and also an account of any registered or valuable parcels
which there may be in the mail. Registered parcels are not placed on the
ordinary sorting-tables, but are treated individually from the moment
they enter the Sorting Office to the time when they are packed ready for
despatch. They are passed from hand to hand, and signed for at each
transfer.
“Blind” parcels are those which are incorrectly or incompletely
addressed. All such parcels have to be examined at comparative leisure,
and the public would be surprised to learn what a large amount of time
is spent by the Post Office in making good the many defects and
shortcomings in addresses on parcels and other postal packets. The
Parcel Post comes in for many kicks from the public, but in justice it
must be said that the officials spare no pains to trace the proper
addresses of parcels. They exercise, too, great ingenuity in the task,
and books of reference are in constant use. Bad spelling in addresses
was formerly a very common source of trouble to sorters, but it is less
noticeable now, and possibly this may be one of the results of universal
education. I will give some instances of addresses of this kind which
have been successfully dealt with by the Post Office staff:—
Sir
lordmear = The Lord Mayor of London
of London Mansion House
manchouse
Mr. Rosenheim
21 Rusſelstreet = 21 Russell Street
Komerseldok Commercial Dock
Michael Kelly
Little elfet = St. Nicholas
Sir Nicolas Dusty Industrial School
School Little Ilford
Tom Jenkins
Haselbeach = Haselbeach
in no Jamtshere Northamptonshire
Mr. Wallace = Messrs. Wallis & Co.
Drapers Drapers
Iobin High Holborn
Ferar & Son = H. B. Fearon & Son
Obanvidock Holborn Viaduct
Then there are instances of extraordinary abbreviations in addresses.
For instance:—
Messrs. CSSA = Civil Service Supply Association
Qvst Queen Victoria Street
People, too, sometimes address their parcels with word pictures instead
of written characters, and of course the funny man who sends a parcel is
also in evidence.
Messrs. Parsons & Co.
Cocks and Hens
London, E.,
which is obviously intended for Poultry, E.C.
* * * * *
Of insufficiently addressed parcels there are a great number, and the
difficulties with these are not lessened by the number of towns bearing
the same name. For instance, there are as many as 24 places in the
United Kingdom alone bearing the name of Newton, 12 named Milton, 16
Middleton, 20 Newtown, 12 Newport, 9 Mount Pleasant, and so on.
The covers of some packages are embellished with drawings, pen-and-ink
sketches, and even paintings, and the monotony of the sorter's duties is
relieved, though when the address of the parcel is hidden among the
foliage of a landscape or written in small characters on a boulder by
the sea-shore his difficulties are not lessened.
Some years ago, before the Parcel Post was established, and when the
difference between the book rate of postage and the letter rate was much
greater than it is at present, a poor woman sent a pair of trousers
through the post to her son, and paid only at the book rate. When the
parcel was delivered, a heavy charge was demanded and paid. The woman
then appealed to the Secretary, and a reply was sent explaining the
regulations and pointing out that the Book Post was not intended for the
transmission through the post of articles of clothing: this she would
see if she consulted the Post Office Guide. The woman replied that she
had consulted the Guide before despatching the parcel, and had found
that anything open at both ends could go by Book Post. She therefore
asked for the return of the surcharge.
One Christmas parcel consisted of a hare stuffed with packets of tea,
raisins, sweets, rashers of bacon, a roll of tobacco, a briar pipe, a
small toothed comb, all wrapped in a red handkerchief. And here is
another instance from a provincial Parcel Post Hospital. A flimsy
hat-box with the lid secured by tape. From it flows a thick and viscid
stream of egg yolk and albumen. When opened it reveals a silk top hat,
inside which is packed a damp goose, the spaces between the goose and
the lining of the hat being packed with eggs. This parcel had travelled
by coach, steamer, and rail _via_ Holyhead to Leeds!
Bad packing, indeed, on the part of senders of parcels causes an
infinity of trouble. Only three days after the establishment of the
Parcel Post in 1883 the Post Office found it necessary to issue notices
to the public throughout the country, warning them of the risk of damage
to the contents of parcels through thoughtless and careless packing. A
man sent bullion from abroad consisting of 400 sovereigns placed loosely
in a light wooden box. The shaking on the journey forced the sides of
the box open, and the sovereigns were scattered among the other parcels
in the same sack. Umbrellas and sunshades are often sent by post wrapped
up merely in brown paper. Now brown paper is just sufficient covering to
be worse than none at all. In the case of an umbrella it hides the
nature of the article, and without any covering at all it would stand a
better chance of travelling safely. It is surprising, too, that china
and glass ware are so frequently sent through the post with the barest
protection. Perhaps a piece of cardboard or a small piece of corrugated
paper without shavings is all that is wrapped round a breakable article.
It has often been noticed that if a bottle of hair-wash or cod liver oil
is broken in transit there is generally no difficulty in recovering a
substantial portion of the contents to be poured into another bottle,
but when a bottle of champagne or of whisky is broken none of the
contents ever remain to be deposited in another vessel.
Ireland is a great country for dairy produce, and she sends many parcels
of butter to England, but such parcels require careful packing. A parcel
wrapped only in grease-proof paper, with an outer wrapper of linen,
looks beautifully firm at the beginning of its journey, but in warm
weather deterioration sets in quickly, and only the wrappers are left by
the end of the journey. The tale is told by the other parcels in the
receptacle. They have all been anointed with oil. One parcel may be a
silk dress, another a gentleman's white shirt, another an album or the
latest thing in millinery.
Who is responsible for lost parcels? In 99 cases out of 100 it may be
confidently answered that the sender is the culprit. The parcel is
probably sent with only a tie-on label, and this gets detached in
transit. Tie-on labels ought never to be attached unless the address is
also on some part of the parcel itself. Parcels of game and poultry are
often sent with merely a paper label tied round the necks of the birds.
Post Office servants do their best, but such labels will get torn off
sometimes, and the birds then find their way to the Returned Parcel
Office. Here they are only kept for a day or two, as they are perishable
matter. They are sold at a sacrifice to outside tradesmen. Articles not
of a perishable nature are kept for some months in case they may be
claimed. In the Returned Parcel Office there is a motley collection of
all kinds of articles awaiting claimants. An elaborate register is kept
of these articles, and a history is furnished of all that is known
respecting them.
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[Illustration]
_Photo_ _Clarke & Hyde._
THE PARCEL POST HOSPITAL.
This is a section of the Parcel Post Hospital. The official
is busy packing up again a parcel which has been carelessly
posted. The baskets are behind him, and all manner of
strange articles are sometimes found loose in them.
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Rats are occasionally very troublesome visitors in the Sorting Office:
they are doubtless attracted by the many toothsome morsels contained in
the parcels. It would seem, therefore, that cats should form a portion
of the staff of every Parcel Office. The cat, however, is an animal
capable of rapid demoralisation. It has been found from experience that
a lazy cat will find it less irksome to feed off a pair of partridges or
a pair of soles not properly packed than to wait and watch in holes and
corners for rats. Besides, rats are everyday food. I am afraid that when
the only thing which can be delivered to the addressee is a label with
the intelligence on the back, “Found loose in Parcel Office,” the cat
knows something of the contents. What is the answer of the Department to
unreasonable people who, not satisfied with the explanation on the
label, demand their parcels? Something to this effect: “Exhaustive
inquiry has been made, but the parcel cannot be traced. There is no
legal obligation to pay compensation for any loss or damage to
unregistered parcels, but the Postmaster-General voluntarily, and as an
act of grace, has seen fit to pay compensation in this particular
instance up to cost price of the goods.” Such compensation in
unregistered parcels must never exceed £2.
The Department takes great pains to repair damaged parcels where repair
is at all practicable, and every Parcel Sorting Office has a hospital
for dealing with parcels in all stages of dilapidation. Frequently the
only damage consists in a torn paper cover or a box with a broken lid,
or a cracked bottle, the contents of which are beginning to leak out. In
such cases repair is easy, but when the damage consists in a broken
violin bow, smashed lantern slides, a piece of carving with some of the
figures knocked off, or a dress with grease stains, the matter has to be
referred to the sender or addressee, and negotiations follow.
All the railway companies convey parcels over their lines, and they
receive a percentage on every parcel carried. The Parcel Mail Coaches I
am dealing with in a subsequent chapter.
The disposal of parcels is not always a simple matter. Many towns and
villages are far removed from the main lines of railway, and a parcel
has sometimes to be sent to two or three intermediate towns before it
can reach its destination. The journey, in fact, has to be done in
stages. Owing to most of the main lines converging on London, that city
has better facilities than any other for disposing of parcels. It is
often quicker to send through London a parcel from a town in the
Midlands or in the West addressed to a town in the Eastern counties.
An important development in connection with the Parcel Post has been the
Express Delivery Service. On payment of a special fee a parcel can
either be sent out in advance of the ordinary delivery after travelling
by the ordinary mail, or it can be sent by express messenger all the way
from the place of posting to the addressee.
One of the rules of the Parcel Post is that living creatures are not to
be sent without the Postmaster-General's direct sanction, but in the
express service by messenger all the way, this is allowed. Dogs on chain
and cats in baskets and other live stock are sent out in charge of
express messengers. On one occasion a man who had lost his way in London
went into a post office, paid the express fee, and asked to be taken to
his destination by Express Post. This was at once arranged.
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[Illustration]
_Photo_ _Clarke & Hyde._
THE CUSTOM HOUSE OFFICERS AT WORK.
Dutiable articles sent through the Post Office are opened
and examined by the Custom House officials. Cigars, wines,
cigarettes, etc., are shown here.
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It may seem strange to have Customs officers working in a Parcel Sorting
Office, but these individuals may be seen at all hours of the day at
Mount Pleasant, at Liverpool, and other seaports. The officials are
present at the offices to examine parcels coming into the United Kingdom
from abroad. All parcels from the Colonies or foreign countries are
liable to Customs examination, and every parcel coming into the country
has therefore to be accompanied by papers declaring the contents of the
parcel. Many tales could be told of the discrepancies between declared
and actual contents: the smuggling habit seems to be ingrained in the
human race.
It is a melancholy fact that a large number of the public cannot be
trusted to send a parcel honestly, that a still larger number cannot be
relied on to address one correctly, and that a yet larger number cannot
pack a parcel. If the faults of the public in these respects could be
remedied to any great extent, the force at Mount Pleasant could be
reduced considerably, and there would be a substantial gain to the
revenue.