SURVEY OF CITY DELIVERY AND COLLECTION

SERVICE

CLEVELAND POST OFFICE

FOR

POST OFFICE AND CIVIL SERVICE COMMITTEE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES WASHINGTON, D. C.

BY

THE TRUNDLE ENGINEERING CO.

CHICAGO, CLEVELAND, NEW YORK

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Small businesses and stores; mixed industrial and residential;

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A. Flow of parcel-post packages from mezzanine shown schematically. Faces 56

G. Proposed method of decentralizing parcel-post routes.

Faces 56

H. Special-delivery postal stations-

Faces 56

I. Special-delivery receipt record (Form No. 3951-Revised).

INTRODUCTION

1. The purpose of this report is to present the results of a survey of the collection and delivery of mail and parcel post. The study was made at the Cleveland (Ohio) Post Office, selected as representative of a large city. Spot checks were made at Detroit, Mich.; Buffalo, N. Y.; and Cincinnati, Ohio.

2. In general, the detail operations of collection and delivery are well conceived. Individually the operations are simple, but the problem of a large city operation becomes extremely complex when consideration is given to the prevailing interrelationship of clerical activity to carrier activity, collection to delivery, train schedules to collection and delivery schedules, interstation schedules, delivery schedules to employee work schedules, and so forth.

3. The method of operation of the Post Office Department has been built on the basis of caring for growth as it takes place. As a suburb grew, for example, carriers were added. As the volume exceeded convenient administration or the physical limitations of the office from which these carriers worked, a branch office was added.

4. A branch office must receive mail from the main post office, so relay trucks were scheduled to and from the new office. The trucks must be fully utilized, so their time was filled out with parcel post, or collection activities, and so on.

5. As a result of this type of growth, which is logical and perhaps reasonable, the collection and delivery operations have reached a point where major economies can only be effected by major revisions. These revisions will entail a complete replanning of the areas served, a long and detailed task because of the complexities of interrelationship previously mentioned.

6. Economies can be made under the present method of operation, but such economies, although nationally representing very large savings, are small compared to those possible if the large-city operations are completely replanned and reorganized.

7. This report includes recommendations for economies as presently organized, and also recommends the method to be followed in complete reorganization.

8. It was soon found that there were so many detailed regulations affecting every phase of the operation, that potential savings would be greatly limited if an attempt was made to stay within the scope of these regulations when developing the recommendations. Therefore, many recommendations, which are considered entirely practical, would require regulation changes.

9. The study of other cities showed that operations in Cleveland are not typical of all large cities. In spite of the many regulations there is little standardization, and each office visited differed materially from the others in over-all as well as detailed operations.

10. The complete and unfailing courtesy and cooperation given the engineers by each and every employee contacted, was extremely helpful in preparing this report and is appreciatively acknowledged. Respectfully submitted.

THE TRUNDLE ENGINEERING CO.

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