LAST-HOUR RUSH

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXIII, 5 July 1939, Page 5

LAST-HOUR RUSH

REMARKABLE MAIL-ROOM FIGURES heavy late postings The most perplexing problem of the Post Office mail-room staffs is the very general tendency to leave the posting of correspondence until the latest possible moment. This very human practice is so marked that in the four chief centres, where letters are handled to the extent of scores of thousands daily, nearly half the day’s postings are made within an hour of the closing time of the mails.

Urgent advice to "post early" is frequently repeated and, if the general public could see everything that has to be done before the mails are ready for despatch, they would realise that there are sound reasons for its repetition. If an important mail closes at 6 p.m. thousands of letters which pile in during the last hour are augmented by the later afternoon clearances at suburban posting-boxes. There are letters for all parts of the world, only a portion of the total being intended for destinations covered by the closing mail. However, every letter has to be examined, the stamps cancelled, and the right mail bag selected according to destination. Mail-room staffs are trained to quick action in this critical final hour because It is not possible to get over the difficulty of the rush by the use of still larger staffs, limits being imposed by the nature of the duties. While the department's customers find themselves faced with a closing time, the mail-room staffs in turn are confronted with the fact that trains and steamers will not wait if their sorting work has not been completed in time; they, too, have their times to observe. Stamp-cancelling machines are used which will handle up to 20,000 letters an hour each, but a certain proportion of the mail requires hand-stamping owing to the fact that the envelopes are not suitable in size for the automatic cancellation machines. In addition to the heavy volume of inward mail for distribution, the Auckland mail-room staff has the daily task of sorting approximately 120,000 letters and accounts posted in the City area. From this big total 60,000, or about half the complete day’s posting, are posted during the final hour prior to the closing of the “Limited” mail, and the sorters and their assistants do smart work in clearing every Southbound letter into the correct mail-bags before the "Limited” leaves strictly “on time.” The Wellington Chief Post Office has mail clearances from 6 a.m. until the steamer-express mail closes at 6 p.m., and during this period deals with approximately 100,000 letters and ac : counts posted at the Chief Office and in posting-boxes around the City. Nearly every day the proportion posted during the final hour prior to the closing of the respective mails reaches 50 per cent. The amount of strenuous work involved during these late postings is shown by the fact that the final three mails of the day alone account for over 50.000 missives posted in the last hour. Everything in this total must be sorted in order that nothing which | should be transported by the Southern ' Express steamer, the Nelson steamer, I arid the "Limited” is left behind. 3f ; the last hour avalanche of mails could be reduced by earlier posting of some portion, the task would be lightened. In connection with the South mails dealt with in the Christchurch office, 44 per cent, of the letters and 21 per cent, of the accounts come in during the final hour, while 46 per cent, of the North Island letters and 43 per cent, of the accounts have to be dealt with during this period. The most important despatches of the day from Dunedin are to the South (5.30 p.m.), North Otago, Canterbury, West Coast, and Central Otago (7 p.m.). In the last hour 50 per cent, of the letters and 30 per cent, of the accounts are posted. The position is somewhat better in respect to the principal northern mails, for which the rush period is 10 to 10.45 a.m. The last hour postings usually total 30 per cent. At 3.30 p.m. a mail closes for the South, and 60 per cent, of the letters come into the Dunedin mailroom within the final hour.

It goes without saying that the work of the Post Office would be greatly assisted, and the strain on the sorters relieved if the public would post more frequently during the day and in particular, keep the postings of accounts away from the busy mail closing times.