1910s Star Route Truck

Front:
NOV 1986 1986 Star Route Fruck Sar Route Truck Star&0Tck 5.5 USA 1910s 5.5 USA 1910s 55 USA A 1910Os Bant TX.

Back:
STAR ROUTE TRUCK First Day of Issue: November 1, 1986 First Issue Location: Fort Worth, Texas When President Tyler signed legislation in 1845 allowing mail to be transported by the lowest bidder to provide "celerity, certainty and security," the Star Routes came into existence. Star Routes were originally designated in postal records by an asterisk — or star. Many of the early Star Routes were serviced by stagecoach, but by the end of the nineteenth century more than 17,000 Star Routes crossed America, with contractors traveling over 230,000 miles of postal routes in carts, buckboards and even dog sleds. From 1900 onward, the use of trucks to haul intra-city freight began to grow in popularity. Today, trucks are still used to haul large quantities of the United States Postal Service's intra-city mail. Today, the term “highway contract route" is used to refer to contractor- supplied transportation services — the modern day Star Routes. The U.S. Postal Service issued the 5.5c Star Route Truck stamp to pre-pay non-profit and preferred mailer, third-class presort mail. No. 86-80 ©1986 The Maximum Card Collection A Division of Unicover Corporation . Cheyenne, WY 82008-0007 Original painting by Basil Smith.