Postal peddler

The travelling term indicated in the vocabulary used by the postal services, all that had milked with the sorting of the mail in travelling vehicles. The majority of these vehicles were mail vans, incorporated in trains transporting of the travellers. On certain main roads, because of the number of travelling services to tractor draw, were consisted of the mail trains. There were also road office-peddlers, installed in coaches especially arranged for the sorting.

travelling post-office employees

By extension, " ambulants" the post-office employees indicated working in these services. The majority of them were employed on schedules of " nuit" but, there were also for a long time travelling services of " jour". Constituted in " brigades" , the teams of the peddlers had operating cycles which made it possible to ensure the service the seven days of the week, all in their fixing nights of rest. Their remuneration took into account the expenses which they had in " boils of ligne" , at the end of their " voyage" to go or " descente". The voyage indicates the vacation of work of a peddler. The voyage following night is called the " remonte". Each brigade , work unit fixed, was identified by a letter: With, B, C, D, E. These letters of " brigade" philatelists are known, because they are reproduced on the seals in date obliterating the late mail, which could be deposited directly in the letter-boxes with which each mail van was equipped. In the event of staff shortage " embrigadé" (vacation in particular), the leader of each " ambulants" could call upon a wheel of agents working at the office of the station terminus: these agents available were called " not embrigadés" or " sédentaires". Being able to travel on several services, the work of the sedentary required the knowledge of the sorting of each one of them. In theory an applicant with the peddlers began his career as a sedentary before being embrigadé in a service available, then later that of his choice. This choice corresponded most of the time to the area of origin…

travelling services

Before the postal aviation does not ensure the routing of the mail, the travelling services know a general expansion in the majority of the countries. The first travelling offices circulate in the United Kingdom.

1838: London - Birmingham
the first French travelling service circulates between Paris and Rouen in 1845. then starting from the Second Empire all the national territory was drained by a peddler. From this period the number of services grows initially with the measurement of the growth of the railway network, then according to the population density of the served zones.
1855: first Italian peddler, Turin - Genoa.

The French defeat of 1871 involves the suppression of Paris-with Strasbourg and the creation of the peddler Paris-with Avricourt, small frontier station with the Alsace-Lorraine. In the neighborhoods of the years 1920, in France more than 220 travelling services exist. But some ensure only one restricted sorting. The post office uses also the grid of the territory by the railways to convey the mail at small distances. The service is then ensured by a " mail - convoyeur" , which ensures obliteration and sometimes pre-tri letters.

Each service or travelling office carried out during its " route" a " tri" more or less detailed of the mail which it conveyed. Being able to carry out this sorting only on one number of direction limited by the number of boxes which the screening machine upright could physically reach, each zone or department of destination was divided into " côtés" what sorted another colleague. But for the important departments the sorting made it possible to release only one certain numbers of offices recipients. These " - Bureaux" passes; began again as of the reception of the " dépêches" the mail sorted by the travelling service and carried out the sorting for the few offices distributers of their zone. This postal term of " Passe" , also the mail dispatched by the offices of the Parisian suburbs bound for the province indicated: " passes-Paris" forwarded by a office-station before being delivered to the various lines on which the peddlers depended.

" Lignes"

The travelling services of the Post office were attached administratively to a " Ligne". It is acted in fact of a direction of Line corresponding to a rail network. That there belongs, until the creation of the SNCF at a Private company or a nationalized company. In 1854, seven directions of Line are created according to this principle. With each one of these lines correspond of the travelling services, of which some keep same name during more than one century. For the Lines installed in Paris, it is necessary to add that from the Mediterranean to Marseilles, and that of the Pyrenees, (network of the South) with Bordeaux. Some examples, limited to the final period of the travelling services

Line of North (old network of the Company of North) or Peddlers of North:

Paris with Lille, Paris with Valencian, Paris with Dunkirk; as from 1980, they constitute a mail Train, the Mail train of North. The Paris last in Lille, or rather Lille in Paris, circulates on November 6th, 1994

Ligne of the East :

Paris with Nancy, Paris with Metz, Paris with Strasbourg, made up in mail Train of the East as from 1982. Last voyage of " remonte" June 30th, 1995.
Paris-with Charleville, in the past named Paris-with Givet: last voyage, on January 24th, 1993.
Paris-with Belfort: created in 1900, it rolls until November 6th, 1994.

Line of PLM (Paris - Lyon - the Mediterranean), renamed Line of South-east :

Paris with Lyon, Paris with Besancon, Paris with Mâcon, Paris with Marseilles, made up in train posts Lyons of 1855 to 1994. Last circulation: November 6th, 1994.
Paris with Chambéry, until November 6th, 1994. Created in 1957, it replaced Paris-with Evian
Paris with " Clermont" , Paris with Vichy, Paris with St-Etienne, train post of Bourbonnais. Last voyage, May 23rd, 1993.

Line of the West , initially based with the Station Saint-Lazare, then in 1966 with the Station Montparnasse:

Paris with St-Brieuc, Paris with Nantes, Paris with Rennes, in the Train posts Breton, of 1989 to November 23rd, 1995.

Line of South-west , Station of Austerlitz:

Paris in Bordeaux, Paris with La Rochelle, Paris in the Pyrenees, in the train posts of Bordeaux of 1976 to April 16th, 1995.
Paris with Brive, Paris with Toulouse, train posts of Brive of 1985 to May 28th, 1995.

In France the travelling services are gradually abandoned starting from the end of the year 1970. The road and aviation allow routings almost such regular. The treatment of the mail by machines of sorting allows, with lower costs, a more detailed sorting in more flexible time slots. The last railway travelling service circulates in November 1995.

sources

Jean Duran, Rémy Plagnes: pioneering days of the travelling post offices . Help postal and telecommunications authorities Line of the West, Paris, 1983.

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