Mail at the Post Office ready to be
loaded onto trucks.
Many peculiarities are noted in the addresses of incoming foreign letters. Very frequently a letter will bear upon the envelop a copy of a business letter-head or bill-head. This is accounted for by the fact that some one in this country when writing to Europe will direct his correspondent to address the expected answer according to the address on the letter-head or bill-head he uses, and the foreigner, not knowing what to select from whatever is printed, takes what he regards to be the safe course and copies all. A letter will sometimes be found to bear a full list of everything sold in a country store, including hardware, provisions, clothing, shoes, and periodicals and newspapers. In other cases the senders cut short the addresses and are satisfied if, in addition to their correspondent's name, they give "America" spelled in any way that suits them best, and the ways are legion.
Mailing Division—Motor Vehicle Service
The Motor Vehicle Service of the New York post-office is in charge of Mr. William M. Taggart. The fleet consists of 329 vehicles. All these are owned by the Government. The Government likewise makes its own repairs, employs its own chauffeurs and mechanics, painters, upholsterers, and various artisans incidental to the operation, repair, and maintenance of the vehicles. There are two garages, and in all 727 men are employed. The garages include fully equipped machine-shops, and stock-rooms in which are constantly kept duplicate parts for all the machines in use.
The magnitude of the service will be realized when it is known that during the last fiscal year the vehicles traveled 4,330,102 miles, or 174 times the distance around the world.
During the last fiscal year the motor vehicle service made 646,967 trips, according to predetermined schedules, and 67,053 trips which were not scheduled but of an emergency character. This gave a total of 713,020 trips. Of this vast number of trips, scheduled and emergency, there were but 747 which were but partly performed and but 1323 which failed.
Mail trucks loaded with parcel post matter to be
transported to different stations in the city.
These trucks are maintained in a condition for operation at all hours of the day and night. No matter what weather conditions prevail, the mails must be moved, and the motor vehicles must be maintained in a condition of efficient repair to permit of their utilization in this work. Every detail of expenditure for the fleet is maintained on a strictly scientific cost accounting basis, the number of gallons of oil, the service of the tires, the cost of operation per mile, with and without chauffeur, are all a matter of record. The repairs made on each machine are carefully recorded, with the cost for the parts and the cost of the mechanical help figured separately, so that it is ascertainable from the records what was spent under this heading for each vehicle during each month and year.
Mailing Division—Transportation Section