Point-to-point same-day deliveries, time-slot deliveries, click-and-collect, drone deliveries – these are just a few of the smart tech-driven delivery solutions we’re all talking about today. And with the speed of deliveries now a key point of competitive differentiation for online retailers, you could say we’ve become a little spoilt as they all battle it out to be the best. Most of us wont think twice about ditching a shopping cart when we find out the standard national postal service is the only option!
So, if that sounds like you, we’ve decided to bring you back down to earth by taking a look through history at some of the crazy ways deliveries used to be made – long before things got so good.
The Pony Express
Back in 1860, a lot of people in the US were getting excited about the Pony Express and its promises of a 10-day delivery service between Missouri and California. That’s right, a whole 10 days! But it was pretty revolutionary for the time – before that, mail used to take 25 days by stage coach.
The Pony Express used horse and rider relay teams to transport mail along the 2,000-mile (3,200 km) route between St Joseph and Sacramento. Horse riders would speed between 200 stations along the route where they would switch loads at each stop. The record delivery time using this service was apparently seven days and 17 hours between Nebraska and California – and that’s because they were carrying the inaugural address of Abraham Lincoln!
Camel mail
Some people might argue Australia Post has gone backwards since the days of camel mail but camel mail in outback Australia was something of a breakthrough. Imported to Australia between 1870 and 1920, camels were the perfect workhorses for moving goods in Australia’s dry desert climate (at snail pace).
‘Afghan’ camel trains (literally a long line of camels) were used to transport goods between Oodnadatta in South Australia and Alice Springs in the Northern Territory. Unlike any other animal, they could carry up to 300 kilograms each and survive for days without water. But they didn’t go it alone, of course, they were always in the hands of a trusty “camel train driver”.
Airship deliveries
Today, you’d expect cross-continental cargo to be loaded on a jet, transported and unloaded in a few hours but in 1934, it was a different story. When the only alternative was a gruelling journey by sea, the German invented Zeppelin airship was used to transport Christmas mail every December (including fir trees!) to a few home-sick expats in Brazil.
The 776-foot long Zeppelin would take off from Friedrichshafen, Germany, loaded with passengers and goods and would arrive in Recife, Brazil, just four days later. Back then, it was the only way to make a non-stop transatlantic flight and the fastest way to cross the ocean.
Dog team mail
As you might imagine, it’s pretty hard to get about in parts of Alaska, Canada and Russia in the middle of winter (at least, it was hard to get about before planes were invented). This is why dogsleds were the most effective way to transport mail in the first half of the 20th century.
In Alaska, dog team mail carriers were operational for approximately 40 years between 1900 to 1940, carrying mail through interior Alaska’s snowy mountains and treacherous terrain. Yep – those delicate and breakable goods we send today would have stood no chance!
Pigeon post
This ancient version of the drone wouldn’t have been any use for transporting the type of bulky goods we send around today – like meal kits and ASOS orders. But they were incredibly useful for sending letters and communications.
Said to date back to the ancient Persians (who apparently invented the art of training birds), carrier pigeons have been used to carry post by a few civilisations around the world over the course of history. In fact, while the Greeks used pigeons to send communications between cities during the Olympic Games, remote police stations in eastern India have only just stopped using pigeons because of competition from email. Who’d have thought!
Coming back to 2018, you’re probably not feeling quite so hard done by. Forget 4-day transatlantic crossings, carrier pigeons and 10-day journeys by horsemen, we’re using mobile devices, GPS, and crowdsourced delivery runners to make same-day deliveries the norm – whatever you’re sending.
Fox Delivery
Ok, maybe not a real type of delivery, but one can easily see the potential!