Mobile post offices deliver mail and other postal services through specially equipped vehicles, such as trucks and trains.
Mobile post offices deliver mail and other postal services through specially equipped vehicles, such as trucks and trains.
Canada began its railroad mail services in 1859. [1] Both CN Rail and CP Rail used mailcars to haul mail across Canada. With the switch to mail delivery by air or truck, Canada Post no longer delivers mail by rail.
Via Rail provides courier/mail service, VIAPAQ Courier, at select train stations in Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.
The French postal service, La Poste, carries mail on exclusively mail trains, operating at night, called SNCF TGV La Poste.
Mobile postal trucks serve two routes for Hongkong Post operating within Hong Kong.
In Israel, mobile post offices began in 1955 as part of the country's postal services for the Negev and Galilee.
Following an earthquake in 2005, the Universal Postal Union (UPU) donated monies to Pakistan for a mobile postal office truck. [2]
The Mobile Post Office was introduced in November 1952 and was operated by Postal Services Department. It provided on-the-spot postal services to residents living in rural areas where there were no post offices. The vans followed fixed routes and time schedules which were announced in the newspapers and each visit only lasted about one to two hours. As more postal facilities were set up across the island, the mobile post offices were no longer needed to serve customers in rural areas and were eventually withdrawn from service in 1980. [3]
The United Kingdom pioneered the modern use of what it calls a travelling post office (TPO), a railway service that operated for the first time in 1838. [4] [5] TPOs were removed from service by Royal Mail in early 2004. [6]
In the UK, road vehicles that provide postal services are known as mobile post offices, to differentiate them from the (now obsolete) rail travelling post offices (TPOs). Mobile post offices were first introduced in 1936 to provide telegraph, telephone and postal services at special events such as race meetings and shows. The need for large mobile post offices declined over the years, but since the mid-1990s small van versions have appeared in rural towns without a permanent post office. [7]
In the United States, the most prominent mobile post offices are railway post offices. For about 30 years, ending in the 1920s, a few cities had streetcar offices. In addition, the U.S. runs a Boat Railway Post Offices. The boat services were first available for inland waterways, beginning in 1857, and subsequently ocean routes to Puerto Rico, Canal Zone, and from Seattle to Alaska. The rail and boat offices were discontinued in 1977 and 1978, respectively.
According to the Universal Postal Union (UPU) database, other countries with mobile post offices include: Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Egypt, Greece, Hungary, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Moldova, New Caledonia, New Zealand, North Macedonia, Norway, Peru, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Yemen, and Zimbabwe. [8] Taiwan's Chunghwa Post, which is no longer a member of the UPU, also maintains one mobile post office in Yuli, Hualien. [9]
Countries have issued postage stamps to recognize mobile postal services. For instance, in 1913, the U.S. issued parcel post stamps that portray a mail train as well as an employee of a railway post office. In 1974, Zambia issued a series of four stamps as commemoratives for the centenary of the Universal Postal Union. Israel issued a stamp in 1959 picturing its red mobile post truck, pictured.
In 1950, the Mobile Post Office Society was established as a philatelic organization interested in the postmarks and activities of mobile offices, primarily in the U.S.
In popular culture, the mobile post office may be best known for the Great Train Robbery (1963).
An international reply coupon (IRC) is a coupon that can be exchanged for one or more postage stamps representing the minimum postage for an unregistered priority airmail letter of up to twenty grams sent to another Universal Postal Union (UPU) member country. IRCs are accepted by all UPU member countries.
The Railway Mail Service of the United States Post Office Department was a significant mail transportation service in the US from the mid-19th century until the mid-20th century. The RMS, or its successor the Postal Transportation Service (PTS), carried the vast majority of letters and packages mailed in the United States from the 1890s until the 1960s.
The Universal Postal Union is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) that coordinates postal policies among member nations and facilitates a uniform worldwide postal system. It comprises 192 member states and is headquartered in Bern, Switzerland.
The United States Post Office Department was the predecessor of the United States Postal Service, established in 1792. From 1872 to 1971, it was officially in the form of a Cabinet department. It was headed by the postmaster general.
Postal history is the study of postal systems and how they operate and, or, the study of the use of postage stamps and covers and associated postal artifacts illustrating historical episodes in the development of postal systems. The term is attributed to Robson Lowe, a professional philatelist, stamp dealer and stamp auctioneer, who made the first organised study of the subject in the 1930s and described philatelists as "students of science", but postal historians as "students of humanity". More precisely, philatelists describe postal history as the study of rates, routes, markings, and means.
This is a survey of the postage stamps and postal history of the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union and the modern Russian Federation.
In Canada and the United States, a railway post office, commonly abbreviated as RPO, was a railroad car that was normally operated in passenger service and used specifically for staff to sort mail en route, in order to speed delivery. The RPO was staffed by highly trained Railway Mail Service postal clerks, and was off-limits to the passengers on the train.
A Travelling Post Office (TPO) was a type of mail train used in Great Britain and Ireland where the post was sorted en route.
Many countries have had dedicated railway services for the delivery of postal mail.
The Postal Transportation Service (PTS) was the renamed successor to the Railway Mail Service of the United States Post Office Department from October 1, 1949. Although this branch of the service had been in charge of all transit mail, some parts had little to do with railroads, even though they were still the most important part of the service. In 1950, of the 32,000 clerks assigned to the PTS, only about 16,000 actually worked on trains. The remainder were in terminals, transfer offices, Air Mail Facility, Highway Post Offices (HPO), administrative offices, etc. Boat Railway Post Office, Streetcar Railway Post Offices, and the Seapost Service had already been discontinued. The name of the Chief Clerk's office was changed to District Superintendent's office.
Pakistan Post is a state enterprise which functions as Pakistan's primary and largest postal operator. 49,502 employees through a vehicle fleet of 5,000 operate traditional "to the door" service from more than 13,419 post offices across the country, servicing over 50 million people. Pakistan Post operates under the autonomous "Postal Services Management Board" to deliver a full range of delivery, logistics and fulfillment services to customers.
U.S. Special Delivery was a postal service paid for with additional postage for urgent letters and postal packets which are delivered in less time than by standard or first class mail service. Its meaning is different and separate from express mail delivery service. Essentially it meant that a postal packet was delivered from a post office to the addressee immediately once it arrived at the post office responsible for delivering it, rather than waiting for the next regular delivery to the addressee.
La Poste is a postal service company in France, operating in Metropolitan France, the five French overseas departments and regions and the overseas collectivity of Saint Pierre and Miquelon. Under bilateral agreements, La Poste also has responsibility for mail services in Monaco through La Poste Monaco and in Andorra alongside the Spanish company Correos.
The postage stamps and postal history of Palestine emerges from its geographic location as a crossroads amidst the empires of the ancient Near East, the Levant and the Middle East. Postal services in the region were first established in the Bronze Age, during the rule of Sargon of Akkad, and successive empires have established and operated a number of different postal systems over the millennia.
The Royal Gibraltar Post Office is the postal services in the British overseas territory of Gibraltar. It is currently a department within the Government of Gibraltar.
Postage stamps and postal history of Singapore surveys postal history from Singapore and the postage stamps issued by that country and its various historical territories until the present day. Postal service in Singapore began with the delivery of stampless letters whose cost was borne by the receiving person, later encompassed pre-paid letters carried by private mail carriers and provisional post offices, and culminated in a system of universal prepayment that required all letters to bear nationally issued adhesive postage stamps. Singapore is an island country off maritime Southeast Asia, located between the Straits of Malacca and the South China Sea.
This is an article about the postage stamps and postal history of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta.
This is a survey of the postage stamps and postal history of Egypt.
Qatar Post is the national provider of postal services in Qatar. Its headquarters building, the General Post Office, has been on the Doha Corniche since 1988.
The Barbados Postal Service (B.P.S.) is the national postal operator of Barbados and operates as a department within the Government of Barbados where it reports to the Ministry of Home Affairs. The Barbados Postal Service (B.P.S.) is headed by the acting Postmaster General, Sheila Greaves, who is responsible for maintaining the island’s postal services, subject to the laws of the island. In 1852, the Postal services for Barbados were reconstituted following the passage of local legislation enabling the delivery of inland postage.
