It’s easy to take the postal service for granted, particularly in the UK where sending a parcel or receiving a package requires relatively little effort. It might cause a certain degree of surprise, then, that a professionally organised service has only been in existence for little over a hundred years.
From horses to pigeons to motorcycles, delivery methods have evolved considerably since the days of the knee-high chimneysweep, let’s take a look.
Horses
In the past the quickest way to move a letter from place to place was via horseback messenger, with heavier items following close behind in wagons or horse-drawn carriages.
Pigeons
The First World War saw homing pigeons used extensively to deliver messages, with the US Army Signal Corps using 600 pigeons in France alone. The practice has its roots in ancient history – the Romans used pigeon messengers to aid their military campaigns more than 2000 years ago.
The method was still used by the British government until the 1950s. Of course more recently, thanks to a certain J.K. Rowling, owl post has given a whole new lease of life to the idea of avian delivery!
Cars, vans and motorcycles
Today we are far more used to road vehicles being used for deliveries and the familiar sight of a red postal van in the UK connects every corner of Britain to a guaranteed delivery service in all weathers.
In cities, motorcycle couriers became very popular for the delivery of letters, documents and small packages that need to get from place to place quickly and avoid traffic jams.
Cycles
With more people becoming concerned about their carbon footprint and cycling being prioritised in urban transport systems, delivery by good old fashion pedal-powered cycle is becoming more popular all the time.
Future
Of course, larger online shopping purchases are unlikely to be coming to your door by cycle anytime soon. So the major players in the business already have many other interesting ideas for deliveries, including aerial unmanned drones and robot-driven vehicles.
Images credit: Reddit.com