Potential Economies And Improvements In Service Through Modernization Of The Postal Field Service: Post Office Department

The present organization of the postal field service is based generally on the 19th century concept of an independent post office in each city, town, or village. There are currently about 33,000 independent post offices which, with few exceptions, process their own incoming and outgoing mail and are responsible for their own administrative and financial functions. We believe that this concept of operation must be modernized if satisfactory mail service is to be provided to the nation in an era of growing as well as shifting population, and increasing availability of sophisticated machines adaptable to speedy processing of mail in mass volumes. The present fragmented system of collecting, canceling, sorting, and dispatching mail at thousands of independent post offices precludes the Department from realizing the full potential of mechanization processes which are now available. Moreover, we believe that this problem will become more acute in future years as new uses are developed for electronics in the automation of postal facilities.