Parcels Post Problem. p. 20.
Parcels Post in England.
One of the most concise and yet comprehensive reviews of the operation of the parcels post system in England is that of I. A. Fleming, taken from an exchange, and it is as follows:
“American friends of so-called ‘postal reforms’ point to the absence of express companies in the Kingdom of Great Britain as one of the good results that have been obtained, and say this is entirely due to the existing postal laws. But if there are no express companies in Great Britain, there are scores and hundreds of forwarding agents that perform the functions of our American express companies. The railroads are themselves engaged in the forwarding business, making low rates for service by fast express, exceeding in limit of weight and size of packages received by the limitations of the postal service by many pounds even by hundreds of pounds.
“Any attempt at comparison between carrying methods in Great Britain with those in vogue in the United States is useless, because of the very short distance between points in the former.
“I asked the managers of some of the leading stores in Ireland, Scotland and England if parcels post offered great opportunities for them to send business into the country, and without exception they admitted that the business by post was decreasing, while the express by rail and by forwarding agents looking for assignments was increasing.
“Eleven pound packages and under are but a small quantity of package shipments.
“From the best information at hand, it is evident that the big carriers have nullified parcels post in Great Britain, and what they have left the railroads have picked up. These carriers receive all manner of parcels, put hundreds in baskets, and thus get the very lowest rates of transportation. They give their patrons lower rates than they could otherwise obtain, and because of their concessions charge them four cents on each consignment, a ‘booking charge’ which gives the carrier a very fair return for his kindness to the shipper. Little packages go by parcels post as a rule, and many of the larger department stores use the mails for delivering goods to out of town customers.
“These rates but add to the burdens of the merchants of the interior. The independent retailer in the country has few friends. Cheap rates, co-operative stores, chain stores, mail-order houses by the thousand, fares paid entirely, special excursions (such as Harrods of London are now running to the sales) with fares paid and ‘tontine’ establishments tend but to make the independent merchant, be he a grocer or ‘draper’ as they call dry goods dealers, only a small potato of the kind that are many in the hill.
“Our mutual friends, the English general merchant, the independent grocer, and the small retailer, have been almost completely relegated to a parsimonious living by co-operation, mail-order retailing, the carrier or forwarding agent, and last but not least, by cheap excursions to the cities.
“That these same evils will, if they obtain a foothold in the United States accomplish the same results for the American general merchant and retailer I firmly believe.”