The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-06-10
He Favors the System That II Now
Used I'm All the Larger Cities
of the Country.
MEANS MORE sUBSTATIoNS
IMPROVED SERVICE AND ECONOMY
THE ADVANTAGES.
Mr.. Roberts Is Assistant Superintend-
ent of City Delivery of the POST
ONCE Department.

W. B. Roberts, Of Washington. assistant
superintendent of city delivery of the Post
Office Department. is in the city to inspect
the delivery system of the local postofiice
and make changes in the service, which
will call for a Encouragement Of routes
and the putting on of several additional
carriers. or the establishment of new sys-
tenn similar to that adopted in the larger
cities Of the country.
Mr.. Roberts favors the latter plan and
stated last evening that he expected to
recommend its adoption. The system in
cludes the establishment of number of
substations all over the city, where the
mail will be delivered to the carriers in
stead Of their going to the postOffice. For
instance, six routes will be arranged so
that they corner at one place where a sub
station can be established In a business
room. preferably a drug store. OF the six
carriers one will stay in the postoffice one
week and route the mail for all six
routes. The mail will then be delivered at
the substation and the FIVE carriers will
cover the six routes. The next week one
OF the other men will do the routing Of
mail at the postoffice, while the first re-
an h 10 carrying' ana SO In rotai,on, eaSn
postoffice.
AT the substation money orders. and
clock will be kept for the carriers to
register the hour of their departure on
each trip. In a few instances 1T may be
found expedient t. deliver the mail to the
rarted nir tS s Iaom 1ne WAGON prepsr
point where four or five of them can meet
conveniently to await the wagon and start
they receive theirr sacks No substation
would be provided In such cases.
The advantages of this system are econ
Is possible to make four trips daily for
each carrier over territory that Is now
covered but twice day. The expense of
maintaining the substations is small COM
proved service through the employment of
additional carriers. The system also re-
lieves the congestion at the central office
in a manner that nothing else will do. At
present many of the carriers are forced to
consume great deal of time every day
in the trips back and forth between the
station Nsystem they can be kept at the
actual delivery of mail practically every
hour of the day. Mr.. Roberts has been in
shutting this system in a number of cit
les and 1t has been found highly satisfac-
tory. He spent some tire al the postoffice
yesterday afternoon, discussing the pro-
posed change with the local officials and
mapping out the city for the new scheme.
He said last evening that he had the mat
ter in such shape that he could complete
the preliminary work for the system to-
day and it COULD be started July 1. Mr.,
Roberts Is authorized by the department to
order the establishment of this system
In event the system should be deemed i'm
practicable for Indianapolis after further
Investigation, he will recommend the en-
ployment of a number of new carriers, be-
ginning July /. The exact number of adj
ditional carriers he was not prepared tC
give last evening, but he said the num-
Der would be sufficient to relieve the con-
gestion of the Indianapolis Office.
Mr.. Roberts will leave this evening fol
Owensboro, KY, and will go from there
to Birmingham, Ala.