Same Day Delivery - Possible In Any City Today?

I recently bought a batch of German letters from the '30s. As I find the postal system to be extremely slow these days, I was struck by the fact that a letter written after midday on May 16, 1936, was delivered to its addressee the very same afternoon. Admittedly, the letter was sent to someone in the same city (Chemnitz), but I still find this highly impressive:

As I know rod222 likes pics, here are the relevant passages from the two letters:

May 16, 1936:


...


Reply, May 17, 1936:


I wonder whether there is a city anywhere in the world today where you could post a letter after midday and it would be received the same afternoon.

What do people think?

I don't know about any other country, but I can tell you it would never happen in the US.

Years ago the US Postal Service did away with morning and afternoon mail deliveries and consolidated it to one delivery per day.

However, here's a cover from 1901 that, while addressed to a party in the same city, was postmarked at 1:00 AM and was backstamped at the receiving post office at 4:30 AM. These mail clerks were really working the overnight shift!

That is impressive, wt1. I presume the lady also got her letter the same day.

As wt1 pointed out, same day delivery is no longer possible in the US through the USPS. Most areas have private messenger services though. During some recent legal proceedings, I recall seeing the rates charged by a messenger service at $25 - $40 depending on the time of day.

Somewhere recently I read that Special Delivery carriers in the US were often teenagers at the turn of the 20th century. I think they were paid something like six to eight cents per delivery which is a fairly hefty percentage of the 10 cent cost for Special Delivery service at the time.

Anyone know how Special Delivery worked through the USPS in, let's say, the 1960s? Could I actually go to the Post Office at 3pm, pay my extra 60 cents for SD service and still receive same day delivery?

OK, I'll risk going way off topic but I just had to post an image of this cover. It's the same issue as wt1's and of my small collection of covers, this is by far my favorite. Not only do I like the cover, but the early US two color stamps are just stunning in my opinion.

To bring things back on topic a bit, the cover was canceled in Northampton, Massachusetts at 10:30am. The reverse shows receipt in Haverhill, Massachusetts at 5:30pm the same day. Just for reference, that's about a 100 mile trip as the crow files and it took 7 hours. I'm really speculating here, but it wouldn't surprise me if in 1901 there was a fairly direct mail run between these two locations whereas nowadays the mail might be routed through an additional centralized sorting facility -- saving money but introducing delay.

'nowadays the mail might be routed through an additional centralized sorting facility -- saving money but introducing delay.'

I have a feeling that these facilities are at the root of the problem.

I was very surprised to learn a few months ago that the mail for my area is not sorted at the local post office but at a large facility - the Sydney West Letters Facility at Strathfield - quite a distance away.

As a result, it's not possible to speak to the people at your local post office regarding problems with your mail. If you try, they just shrug their shoulders and say it has nothing to do with them.

To respond to the comment from xquercus:




You may be interested in this commentary taken from a presentation of early US Special Delivery history:

While not same day service, there have been several times over the last couple years that things I've either purchased or sold on ebay have gone from one coast to the other in 1 business day. Just using first-class too. One particular one I remember was selling a baseball card on a Saturday morning and dropping it off at the PO around noon when they were about to close. My buyer, in Washington state (I'm in Massachusetts) received it Monday morning.

I just love those covers wt1 and xquercus! I find the centering on your Scott #295's is almost perfect for these issues! Gorgeous covers! I'm jealous...haha

Wow, interesting topic. So back in the day the term "snail mail" wouldnt apply. Try horse drawn carriage mail with express delivery. Does anyone have an example of a letter sent by airmal, say Europe to USA or from coast to coast US so that we can see those delivery time?

I was under the impression that here in the US, if you used EXPRESS MAIL
envelopes, it was delivered within the same day as posting (from a post office window)
to the recipient within the same town.

Not true ... it is NEXT DAY DELIVERY. This is the detail from the USPS web site on both domestic Express Mail and Priority Mail:

I guess I should have pointed out at the beginning of this thread that I was referring to ORDINARY MAIL. Germany also had an express mail service, but, in this case, it's hard to see how it could have been any faster than ordinary mail. I think all countries have an express mail service, but of course you have to pay more for that - usually, a great deal more.

I should mention in this context that I met an elderly gentleman recently who used to work in the post office in NSW in the early '60s (both country and city locations). He told me that in those days if a letter was not delivered the day after it was posted, you'd get a big slap on the wrist.

I finally found what I was looking for! The question was raised as to whether the US Postal Service ever provided same-day delivery of mail ... the answer is "YES" ... back in the 1960's the service was available in certain large cities. It was known as "ABCD" or "Accelerated Business Collection and Delivery" .... here's an excerpt right off of the history section of the US Postal Service's web site. The service was phased out in 1969 "partly because many businesses were relocating from city centers to the suburbs":



In fact, in it's day, the USPS was even promoting the service via slogan cancels such as this:



(By the way, a bit off topic here, but looking at the above slogan cancel dating back to 1967, isn't that a bit early for Massachusetts to have been abbreviated "MA" ... back in the 1960's I always through that "Mass." was still the most popular abbreviation.)

That cancellation was 13 days after I was born. I grew up just outside of Worcester (but born in Stoughton)

That now gives me an idea to try and find a cancellation from my birth date / city. Never thought of that before LOL