Page 8 - Demo

After the first bus was completed and set up for mail sorting, but prior to its first run, it was placed on display at the White House where President Roosevelt deposited the first letter on board%u2014for his own personal collection. He also arranged for King George in England, a fellow stamp collector, to receive a Trip 1 cover. In examining the bus, Roosevelt remarked with a grin that, %u201cI think you ought to have a machine gun on top.%u201dThe very first HPO route ran between Washington, D.C., and Harrisonburg, Virginia, and covered a distance of 149 miles. It carried 114,311 covers%u2014roughly half of them on Trip 1, and half on the return Trip 2. Years later, after about 291,000 miles on the same route, that first bus was stationed in Indianapolis for about a year, then in several other cities%u2014until being decommissioned in the 1960s. The interiors of Highway Post Offices were almost identical to the Railway Post Offices they replaced. One side contained built-in letter cases filled with pigeon holes, and a letter distributing table. The other side had another distributing table and holders for mail sacks. Windows, fitted with shatterproof glass, were barred on the outside, and screened on the inside, to provide security and ventilation. There were electric ceiling lights, a small rest room, and enough storage space for about 150 sacks of mail.When an HPO arrived at a local stop, or the terminus of its run, the processed and sorted mail was quickly transferred to post offices, trains, trucks, airports or other HPOs. Then, the bus was loaded with fresh sacks of unsorted mail, and readied for its return trip.HPO PersonnelThe Highway Post Office buses were owned and operated by private contractors. But their design, schedules, and routes were determined by postal authorities. Besides a driver, each HPO bus had two mail clerks, who were highly trained and selected under the rules established by the Civil Service System. The clerks had a long tradition of skill, stamina, and devotion to duty, and they often worked 12-15 hours a day on the swaying, jostling vehicles. To insure that only the most talented people were employed, they were regularly tested with special examinations to make sure they had all the required up-to-date knowledge. They needed to know about a wide range of post office locations, as well as changing transportation patterns, schedules, and routes. The clerks also had to be able to make adjustments based on missed FDR depositing the first letter in HPO Number One.