On the Road

Horseless wagons began to appear in Europe and America in the late 1800s. American postal officials, continuously seeking faster and more effective ways of moving mail, were drawn to the possibilities of these new self-propelled wagons. The match between postal service and vehicle was a great success. By 1920, the U.S. Post Office Department controlled the largest civilian vehicular fleet in the world. By the 1960s, these vehicles had become an essential tool of city delivery service. Today letter carriers and their vehicles are commonplace in neighborhoods across the country.