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29-606: Salem Post Office , also known as the Old Post Office, is a historic post office building located at Salem, Virginia . The Salem Post Office was built between 1922 and 1923. It is a one-story, Georgian Revival -style, brick building. It was designed by the Office of the Supervising Architect for the U.S. Treasury under the direction of Louis A. Simon . The main entrance features fluted Doric order pilasters surmounted by

58-576: A mailman , mailwoman , mailperson , postal carrier , postman , postwoman , postperson , person of post , letter carrier (in American English ), or colloquially postie (in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom ), is an employee of a post office or postal service who delivers mail and parcel post to residences and businesses. The term "mail carrier" came to be used as

87-604: A property in Salem, Virginia on the National Register of Historic Places is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Post office Before the advent of postal codes and the post office, postal systems would route items to a specific post office for receipt or delivery. During the 19th century in the United States , this often led to smaller communities being renamed after their post offices, particularly after

116-458: A City Carrier Assistant (CCA). Rural carriers are hired as Rural Carrier Associate (RCA) carriers, without benefits. There is normally an RCA assigned to each rural route and they usually work less frequently than city CCAs. As a result, there are thousands of RCA positions that go unfilled for a lack of applicants and so are covered by other RCAs until the hiring improves for the hiring process explained). Highway Contract Route carriers are hired by

145-586: A Doric frieze with triglyphs and a dentilated pediment. Additions were made to the rear of the building in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1989–1991. The post office was decommissioned in 1985, and subsequently occupied by doctor's offices. In 2013, Roanoke College purchased the Old Post Office. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1992. It is located in the Downtown Salem Historic District . This article about

174-541: A gender-neutral substitute for "mailman" soon after women began performing the job. In the Royal Mail , the official name changed from "letter carrier" to "postman" in 1883, and "postwoman" has also been used for many years. In the United States , there are three types of mail carriers: City Letter Carriers, who are represented by the National Association of Letter Carriers ; Rural Carriers , who are represented by

203-415: A lower density and higher mileage than those of letter carriers. They all work mounted routes, leaving their vehicles only to deliver to group mailboxes or to deliver an article that must be taken to a customer's door. However, now that former rural areas are being urbanized, their routes are growing very similar to mounted "city routes." Rural carriers often use their own vehicles and are not required to wear

232-716: A uniform. Because of urbanization around cities and because rural carriers deliver mail at less cost to the Postal Service, the rural carrier craft is the only craft in the Postal Service that is growing. Highway Contract Route carriers work routes that were established with a density of less than one customer per mile driven (some later become denser and can then be converted to rural delivery). They are only mounted routes, and all HCR carriers use their own vehicle. These routes are typically found in outlying areas, or around very small communities. The three types of mail carriers are also hired quite differently. A new letter carrier begins as

261-490: A vehicle) or "walking" routes (for those that are done on foot). When working a mounted route, letter carriers usually drive distinctive white vans with the logo of the United States Postal Service on the side and deliver to curbside and building affixed mailboxes . Carriers who walk generally also drive postal vehicles to their routes, park at a specified location, and carry one "loop" of mail, up one side of

290-402: Is identified by its PIN. Post offices coming under Department of Posts, Ministry of Communication, Government of India have a history of one hundred fifty years. Private courier and delivery services often have offices as well, although these are usually not called "post offices", except in the case of Germany , which has fully privatised its national postal system . As abbreviation PO

319-464: Is instead known as a sorting office or delivery office, which may have a large central area known as a sorting or postal hall. Integrated facilities combining mail processing with railway stations or airports are known as mail exchanges. In India , post offices are found in almost every village having panchayat (a "village council"), towns, cities, and throughout the geographical area of India. India's postal system changed its name to India Post after

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348-433: Is used, together with GPO for General Post Office and LPO for Licensed Post Office. There is evidence of corps of royal couriers disseminating the decrees of Egyptian pharaohs as early as 2400   BCE, and it is possible that the service greatly precedes that date. Similarly, there may be ancient organised systems of post houses providing mounted courier service, although sources vary as to precisely who initiated

377-539: The Holy Roman Empire . The British Postal Museum claims that the oldest functioning post office in the world is on High Street in Sanquhar , Scotland . The post office has functioned continuously since 1712, during which horses and stagecoaches were used to carry mail. Rural parts of Canada in the 19th century utilised the way office system. Villagers could leave their letters at the way office which were then taken to

406-516: The National Rural Letter Carriers' Association ; and Highway Contract Route carriers, who are independent contractors. While union membership is voluntary, city carriers are organized nearly 93 percent nationally. Letter carriers are paid hourly with the potential for overtime. Letter carriers are also subject to "pivoting" on a daily basis. When a carrier's assigned route will take less than 8 hours to complete, management may "pivot"

435-457: The Pack-Station for package delivery , including both drop-off and pickup, in 2001. In the 2000s, the United States Postal Service began to install Automated Postal Centers (APCs) in many locations in both post offices, for when they are closed or busy, and retail locations. APCs can print postage and accept mail and small packages. Postman A mail carrier , also referred to as

464-736: The Post Office Department began to require that post office names not be duplicated within a state . The term "post-office" has been in use since the 1650s, shortly after the legalisation of private mail services in England in 1635. In early modern England, post riders — mounted couriers —were placed, or "posted", every few hours along post roads at posting houses (also known as post houses) between major cities, or " post towns ". These stables or inns permitted important correspondence to travel without delay. In early America, post offices were also known as stations. This term, as well as

493-468: The 2000 A.D., post offices would collect fees for radio licenses, recruitment for government jobs, and the operation of public call telephone (PCO) booths. Postmen would deliver letters, money orders, and parcels to places that are within the assigned area of a particular post office. Each Indian post office is assigned a unique six-digit code called the Postal Index Number , or PIN. Each post office

522-572: The advent of private courier companies in the 1990s. It is run by the Indian government's Department of Posts. India Post accepts and delivers inland letters, postcards, parcels, postal stamps, and money orders (money transfers). Few post offices in India offer speed post (fast delivery) and payments or bank savings services. It is also uncommon for Indian post offices to sell insurance policies or accept payment for electricity, landline telephone, or gas bills. Until

551-406: The carrier assigned to the route, and a current PS Form 3999 (street observation by a postal supervisor to determine accurate times spent on actual delivery of mail). Rural carriers are under a form of salary called "evaluated hours", usually with overtime built into their pay. The evaluated hours are created by having all mail counted for a period of two or four weeks, and a formula used to create

580-563: The mail between Charlestown Md P.O. & the Rail Road "daily or as often as requisite at $ 48 per annum". For at least two years Black served as a mail messenger, ferrying the mail between Charlestown's train depot and its post office." At least two women, Susanna A. Brunner in New York and Minnie Westman in Oregon, were known to be mail carriers in the 1880s. Mary Fields , nicknamed "Stagecoach Mary",

609-499: The nearest post office, as well as pick up their mail from the way office. In parts of Europe, special postal censorship offices existed to intercept and censor mail. In France, such offices were known as cabinets noirs . In many jurisdictions, mailboxes and post office boxes have long been in widespread use for drop-off and pickup (respectively) of mail and small packages outside post offices or when offices are closed. Germany's national postage system Deutsche Post introduced

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638-583: The other providing sturdy oxen for bulk shipments. The Byzantine historian Procopius , though not unbiased, records the Cursus Publicus system remained largely intact until it was dismantled in the Byzantine empire by the emperor Justinian in the 6th century. The Princely House of Thurn and Taxis family initiated regular mail service from Brussels in the 16th century , directing the Imperial Post of

667-1103: The practice. In the Persian Empire , a Chapar Khaneh system existed along the Royal Road . Similar postage systems were established in India and China by the Mauryan and Han dynasties in the 2nd century BCE. The Roman historian Suetonius credited Augustus with regularising the Roman transportation and courier network, the Cursus Publicus . Local officials were obliged to provide couriers who would be responsible for their message's entire course. Locally maintained post houses ( Latin : stationes ) privately owned rest houses ( Latin : mansiones ) and were obliged or honored to care for couriers along their way. The Roman emperor Diocletian later established two parallel systems: one providing fresh horses or mules for urgent correspondence and

696-544: The said carrier to work on another route to fill that carrier up to 8 hours. It is a tool that postal management uses to redistribute and eliminate overtime costs, based on consultation with the carrier about his/her estimated workload for the day and mail volume projections from the DOIS (Delivery Operations Information System) computer program. Routes are adjusted and/or eliminated based on information (length, time, and overall workload) also controlled by this program, consultations with

725-447: The set dollar amount they will be paid for each day worked until the next time the route is counted. Highway Contract Routes are awarded to the lowest bidder, and that person then either carries the route themselves or hires carriers to fulfill their contract to deliver the mail. Letter carriers typically work urban routes that are high density and low mileage. Such routes are classified as either "mounted" routes (for those that require

754-436: The street and back down the other side, until they are back to their vehicle. This method of delivery is referred to as "park and loop". Letter carriers may also accommodate alternate delivery points if "extreme physical hardship" is confirmed. In cases where mail carriers do not have assigned vehicles, they may also get undelivered mail from relay boxes placed along their routes. Rural carriers typically work routes that have

783-438: The term "post house", fell from use as horse and coach services were replaced by railways , aircraft , and automobiles . The term "post office" usually refers to government postal facilities providing customer service. " General Post Office " is sometimes used for the national headquarters of a postal service, even if the building does not provide customer service. A postal facility that is used exclusively for processing mail

812-556: The winning bidder for that route. They are not United States Postal Service employees and normally receive lower pay than carriers on city or rural routes. Women have been transporting mail in the United States since the late 1800s. According to the United States Post Office archive, "the first known appointment of a woman to carry mail was on 3 April 1845, when Postmaster General Cave Johnson appointed Sarah Black to carry

841-723: Was the first black woman to work for the USPS, driving a stagecoach in Montana from 1895 until the early 1900s. When aviation introduced airmail , the first woman mail pilot was Katherine Stinson who dropped mailbags from her plane at the Montana State Fair in September 1913. The first women city carriers were appointed in World War I and by 2007, about 59,700 women served as city carriers and 36,600 as rural carriers representing 40 per cent of

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