Rolling mailbox

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A rolling mailbox , also known as a moving mailbox , rail mailbox or tram mailbox , is a mailbox on a public means of transport , typically attached to a rail mail car , a tram or a post bus . The facility enables post users to drop their letters at any train station , stop or stop . The rolling mailboxes are generally emptied at post offices along the route.

This article or paragraph presents the situation in Germany . Help us to describe the situation in other countries.

railroad

In Germany, the letter boxes on railroad cars had to be opened when starting work and closed later when the car had arrived at the terminus. When driving across the federal border, the mailboxes were always closed. The mailboxes were mainly used for station letters. In some cases, considerable quantities of letters were posted through the mailboxes of the rail mail cars. The mailboxes were always emptied after the train left a station, the items removed were printed with the route stamp and treated like items of the same type. Telegrams found in the mailbox were marked “From the mailbox”, the place of delivery and an imprint of the route stamp. Affixed postage stamps were also canceled by the route stamp and the telegrams, including those that were not completely franked, were then placed in an envelope labeled “Open immediately! Telegram to ... “handed over to the fastest to be reached telegraph office by the takeover officer of the local post office.

  • Post slot on a rail mail car built in 1933

  • Rail mail box from the last time of the German rail mail, 1970–1997

  • Letter with stamp: From the mailbox and a station stamp

tram

In Germany, the Deutsche Reichspost was allowed, in parallel with the law to transport letter bags by tram, to attach letter boxes to the tram cars at its own expense and to replace or empty them at certain stations. This allowed citizens to post their letters at any stop on the tram network. This right has been used in various ways. Contracts for the transport of letters and parcels by trams were concluded in Berlin, Cottbus, Darmstadt, Frankfurt am Main , Hamburg , Hanau , Jena, Munich, Potsdam and Stuttgart , among others .

  • Stamp of the Hamburg tram post, right

  • A passer-by uses a letter box on the Naples tram , 1950s

  • A passer-by uses a letterbox on the Lisbon tram , 1921

  • Sofia tram rolling mailbox

  • As an exception, a letterbox from a private postal service provider attached to the inside of a tram car in Bremen

omnibus

When the postal services (Reichspost, Deutsche Post, Deutsche Bundespost) still carried out passenger transport by motorized mail, mailbox slots were often made near the front door of the buses . Letters could be dropped in during a stop.

In some cities today there are city buses that accept mail. In the vehicles of Stadtverkehr Detmold GmbH there are post boxes inside next to the driver that are emptied every working day.

  • Mailbox to the right of the front door on a MAN post bus

  • Kraftpost bus with a slot in the left door wing of the front entrance, 1982

  • Mailbox to the left of the front door on a Mercedes-Benz O 317

Web links

Commons : Post boxes on trains  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Concise dictionary of the postal system . 2nd Edition; P. 76
  2. ↑ Concise dictionary of the postal system . 2nd Edition; P. 75
  3. ↑ Manfred Stephan; P. 78
  4. ↑ Stadtverkehr Detmold GmbH