A nice set of pictures showing the transport Royal Mail have used down the years.
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_pictures/5162768.stm
Does anyone remember the Reliants?
A bit different to the boxy 'Postman Pat' style vans they have now.
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My local postman drives a quite smart looking old shape Mini when delivering on our estate.
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What I do remember in the fifties and early sixties is that small and medium-sized PO vans used to have black rubber front wings (so did some ared forces vehicles).
Very sensible modification, now used by Nissan for I think the Xtrail, although finishes have improved to such a degree that on the example I know the wing seems to be metallic silver painted metal.
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My local postman drives a quite smart looking old shape Mini when delivering on our estate.>>
Probably his own vehicle.
We once had a postman who used his car to get from the sorting office to his delivery areas. He would park up, get his bags ready and then lift out his PO bicycle from the boot...:-)
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What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
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"Probably his own vehicle."
I thought it would have been, but what was strange to me was that he was using his own personal vehicle in his official duties. Surely they would have provided a company vehicle...unless they expected him to walk or take the bus from the central depot to his specified route miles away.
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It's a couple of years since I used to work for RM (Transport Manager) but I doubt things have changed. Many posties choose to use their own vehicles rather than walk, cycle or use the bus as it means they finish earlier - it can save them up to an hour or more.
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And they have to have the jalopy anyway like everyone else.
Stands to reason.
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I never saw a Reliat PO van (although I can imagine them being unpopular), but I remember the Morris Z vans very well. Some had GPO registrations - West Sussex gave up that particular one to the Post Office. Underneath beat the leisurely, side-valve heart of a Morris 8.
Then they had Morris Minors I think for as long as they were made. There were a few Ford Anglia vans in the 1960s but I heard thatb they hated those as they didn't start easily in the mornings. Morris Minors had the good old SU carburettor so no problems.
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Once upon a time i too was a postie, for about a year in between jobs (don't ask) at that time they were phasing out Marina's and Ital vans and going to Escort vans.
If you asked the postie's in them days what there favorite van was, they usualy said the Bedford HA ,upright driving postion easy to get in and out of quickly and light steering. the new escort vans of the time had very heavy unassisted steering.
The most unpopular were metro vans due to there high sill which you had to step over whilst getting in and out
All the petrol engine vans had a restrictor plate in the carb or restricted throttle opening to limit performance. So when we started using diesel escorts and Fiestas it was a real step up in performance terms in comparission to the restricated petrols
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Today's Daily Mail (Pages 20-21) has a number of photographs of transport used by the Post Office over the years - it includes a photo of a Reliant Robin from 1971, a model that wasn't used for very long as they "kept tipping over."
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What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
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"Many posties choose to use their own vehicles rather than walk, cycle or use the bus as it means they finish earlier "
Thats a really new one on me, I never imagined they would be handed a rather heavy looking bag of mail to be delivered on an estate 5 miles away and then told "its up to you to get there however you can". No wonder mail winds up in skips and wheelie bins etc.
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A friend of mine who "downshifted" from my line of work has become a postie. He drives Corsas and Berlingo/Puegeot vans says that modern vans the PO use are spot on for comfort and covenience, it's the one thing that's easy about the job, mind you as he says - he sleeps at night. I always said he'd go far being a man of letters etc. (which he is in both senses of the phrase)
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There's something about the Berlingo that reminds me of the 1940s Jowett Bradford - maybe it's just me. It certainly reveals my age remembering any Jowett (let alone the Morris Z van I referred to above). The Javelin and Jupiter were beautiful but unreliable, the Bradford just unreliable. Not that the Berlingo is unreliable - it's just the look of it.
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Another vehicle I'm strangley attracted to....
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Thanks Avant for mentioning the Jowett Bradford. Unreliable perhaps, but much to be said for it. A sidevalve flat-twin I seem to remember, with partially exposed valves... Got a lift in one once that developed a sticking valve. The owner was able to fix it at the roadside.
Not very quick of course but probably not very thirsty either, and the van-type body was a very vintage-style structure.
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I'm a postie and drive a corsa combi van. There ok but really could do with air con.
I think the official line re. using your own car is it's up to you but most people wouldn't be insured for using there car for work.
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The Morris J-type was my favourite:
www.lvvs.freeserve.co.uk/images/wbk390.jpg
So sweet! It just cries out for Jaguar suspension and a mid-mounted Rover V8!
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