Highway Post Office

The term highway post office refers to brightly colored red, white and blue buses used to carry mail to multiple areas over wide distances.

Due to withdrawal of many railway post office (RPO) trains from service, the U.S. Post Office Department decided to experiment with distribution of mail on large buses equipped similarly to RPO cars. On February 10, 1941, experimental service started on the Washington, DC and Harrisonburg, Virginia HPO. It was a success from the start, but due to World War II, expansion of the service was delayed for several years. After the war, the service increased rapidly, with more than 130 routes established between 1948 and 1955. As this service was somewhat enmeshed with the RPO service, its value decreased as RPOs were abolished. The last HPO service to operate in the U.S. was the Cleveland, Ohio, and Cincinnati, Ohio HPO, which was discontinued in 1974.

See also

• Railway Mail Service Library

Sources

• Wilking, Clarence. (1985) The Railway Mail Service, Railway Mail Service Library, Boyce, Virginia. Available as an MS Word file at http://www.railwaymailservicelibrary.org/articles/THE_RMS.DOC

1. Railway post office
2. United States Postal Service
3. Post Office Act (1872)
4. List of U.S. state and territory abbreviations
5. Railway Mail Service
6. United States post office murals
7. List of United States post offices
8. ZIP Code
9. List of United States post office murals
10. Postal Clause
11. United States Postmaster General
12. Boat railway post office
13. Community post office
14. Terminal railway post office
15. Price's Post Office
16. Federal Highway Administration
17. Childers Post Office
18. American Letter Mail Company
19. Soldotna Post Office
20. National Postal Mail Handlers Union