Post Office parcels are mainly carried on passenger trains, but are loaded and unloaded by railway staff.
The railway itself accepts, collects and delivers parcels for carriage by passenger trains, or by booked special parcels trains, during normal business hours on six days of the week. A countrywide service is available to and from all stations open to passengers, and also to some stations which were formerly served by passenger trains but are no longer. No extra charge is normally made for collection and delivery, although extra charges are now raised in a few areas where conditions are exceptional.
Facilities for trunk conveyance of parcels and mails will improve with the improvement of main line services, but withdrawals of stopping services will reduce the number of places which can be served by rail movement throughout. No great volume of traffic will be affected, and the problems which will arise are being considered with the Post Office.
Another, and very important problem which concerns both the Post Office and British Railways is the overlapping of their parcels services, on which both organisations lose money.
The Post Office gives a nation-wide service for parcels up to 22 lb. in weight, and with fairly tight restriction on size. They do not collect parcels, except for their own convenience, but they do deliver.
The railways accept parcels up to 2 owt. in weight, without any limitation on size or shape. They collect and deliver the parcels, provide evidence of delivery if necessary, and compensate for loss or damage.
In 1961 the railways handled 50 m. bags of parcels post for the Post Office, estimated to contain 255 m. parcels of average weight 5 lb., and yielding receipts of £30 m. to the Post Office, of which the railways received £12 m. The railways carried 84 m. consignments in their own parcels service in 1961, with receipts of £27 m. This traffic, like Post Office parcels traffic, has shown a rising trend in recent years.
An analysis of the railways' service in 1960 shows that 3,368 of the smaller stations produced only 4 per cent. of the receipts from parcels and miscellaneous traffic by coaching train. At the other end of the scale, 22 stations accounted for 45 per cent. of the total receipts. As might be expected, this railways parcels traffic, and Post Office parcels traffic, is distributed over the country in much the same pattern as wagon load and sundries freight traffic.
The Post Office are reported to lose £8·4 m. on their parcels service, and the railways passenger parcels traffic makes an inadequate contribution to system cost. To a considerable degree the two forms of service compete for traffic which is not favourable to either, and render it even less so by the duplication of facilities where both are little used. In addition, they also compete with road parcels services, in particular with British Road Services, but road operators limit their coverage to the more remunerative areas.
Co-ordination of services and charging scales are the subject of active discussions between the Post Office and the railways, and problems arising from railway closures will be treated as part of the broader problem. These discussions will also embrace consideration of better means of handling mails and parcels at terminals.
Reference will be made to possible amalgamation of some parts of the parcel service with freight sundries traffic in a later section.
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