Great Britain’s conservative enactments will likely be a model for any extension of the parcels post service by Congress. The service is almost twenty-five years old over there. It has become one of the most important and highly appreciated postal features. Its growth has been continuous and phenomenal. The scope has frequently been broadened. There was an early clamor for an agricultural parcels post. The owners of small farms in remote localities wanted it. The growers of spring flowers in Kerry said it would enable them to compete with the south of France and the Scilly Isles. Eventually the agricultural parcels post was authorized and also spacious dimensions for packages. Flower growers can now send full length orchid spikes and long-stemmed roses by post, where formerly only simple blooms were admissable.
Send Fish, Eggs and Fruit
The produce of the culturists goes forward to London and other big English cities in tremendous volume. Fresh fish, dispatched from seaport towns to the large hotels, are delivered with celerity. Meats, cheese, fruits, vegetables, and freshly laid eggs in mail packages under the 11-pound limit form a very considerable factor in the commerce of the Kingdom.
The general rates are low. A 1-pound parcel takes a three-penny stamp. That is 6 cents in our money. For 2 pounds an 8-cent stamp is required; for three pounds, a 10-cent stamp; for 5 pounds, 12 cents; for 7 pounds, 14 cents; 8 pounds, 16 cents; 9 pounds, 18 cents; 10 pounds, 20 cents, and 11 pounds, 22 cents. Four-pound parcels cost as much as five pounds, and 6 pounds cost as much as 7 pounds. For inland parcels 3 feet 6 inches is the maximum length; 6 feet the maximum measurement for length and girth. These have been adopted as standard dimensions in the services of numerous other countries. Parcels should not be posted at a letter box, but presented at the counter of a postoffice. The government virtually guarantees the sender against loss up to $10. Payment of a registry fee of 4 cents, in addition to the regular postage, insures the parcel for $25; a 25-cent registry stamp carries an insurance of $1,000. There have been demands, not yet conceded, for the cash on delivery system that several European countries have adopted.
The big retail stores of London avail themselves extensively of the parcels service for delivery of goods. The rates, ranging from 6 to 22 cents, are not prohibitive. In many cases the government service is cheaper and quicker. Laundries return washing by parcels post. In Germany, where the rates are even cheaper, lads away at school send their soiled linen home by mail to be washed and it is returned to them by the same conveyance.
Sidney Buxton, the postmaster-general of Great Britain, in his last report, statistically demonstrates the continuous growth, and consequently the popularity, of the parcels post in the United Kingdom. The number of parcels delivered in the country districts of England and Wales in 1896-97 was 41,512,000, and increased annually by from 3 to 6 per cent, till in 1905-6 the number was 66,277,000. In the London district for the same ten-year period the increase was from 11,229,000 parcels to 18,167,000. A similar increase was shown for Scotland from 6,802,000 to 10,725,000 parcels, and for Ireland, where the increase was from 4,172,000 in 1896-97 to 6,513,000 in 1905-6.
The gross amount of revenue the government collected increased from £1,445,126 for 63,715,000 parcels in the United Kingdom for the first year of the decade to £2,138,673 for 101,682,000 parcels in the last year of the decade. The post-office’s share of these collections increased from £763,307 to £1,142,224. The average postage per parcel decreased during the period from about 11 cents to 10 cents. The postmaster-general undertakes to deliver both letters and parcels at every house in the Kingdom. They are delivered by the same postman, except in the large towns, where there is a special staff for parcel work.
Call Swiss Service Best
Because of competition from private agencies, that have charges graduated on a basis of distance, there is a tendency for an unduly high proportion of long distance parcels and parcels for delivery in rural districts, which are the least remunerative. The post-office has met this competition by establishing, for comparatively short distances, a large number of horse and motor parcel van services, as road conveyance for these distances makes possible an economy as compared with conveyance by railway at the charge of 55 per cent of the receipts.