Post Office Department mechanics and vehicles awaiting repair at postal garage.

By the 1950s, some postal trucks had been on the road for 30 years.

1921-1940

By 1921, the mish-mash of vehicle types that
was the U.S. postal fleet had become unwieldy.
The 4,000 trucks owned by the Department
consisted of 43 different types of trucks by 23
different manufacturers. The cost to maintain
parts and train mechanics to service all the
vehicle styles was draining the postal budget.

Taming Chaos

As if the variety of mail trucks was not enough
of a challenge to mechanics, most of those
trucks were assembled with sections from
different manufacturers. For instance, the Acme
mail truck had an axis made by Timken, an
engine by Continental, transmission by Cotta,
carburetor by Rayfield and additional parts by
Pierce, Eisemann and Blood Brothers companies.

“When you hear talk of keeping a vehicle together with bailing wire, believe me, the Post Office was good at it.”

Jim Byrne, Baltimore letter carrier

Officials had to standardize the postal fleet before
it became uncontrollable and useless. They did
so by reducing the number of manufacturers
from which they purchased their vehicles. The
Department focused on the three companies
whose vehicles made up much of the postal fleet
at the time – Ford Motor Company Commerce and
White Motor Company. Of the three, it was the
Ford trucks that became the heart of the fleet.

Showing Their Age

During the Great Depression of the 1930s
and America’s involvement in World War II
from 1941–1945, new truck purchases were
a low priority at the Post Office Department.
As a result, trucks bought in the 1920s and
early 1930s were kept on the road longer than
expected. Skilled mechanics helped keep those
trucks operating as best they could. Bailing
wire, talent and luck kept these aging vehicles
on the road through the end of the war.

“Due to [World War II] we literally drove the trucks until the fenders fell, or rusted, off.”

Larry Clark, Post Office Department driver

The Department was hit with another setback
during the war when many of its mechanics
were called into service. Officials brought
retired mechanics back to work. These men
found themselves repairing the same vehicles
they had worked on decades before.

<< 1906-1920 : 1950-1986 >>

Letter carrier posing in front of his mail truck.

Postal trucks lined up outside a Washington, DC, postal garage.

1931 Ford Model A Parcel Post truck