The Postal Van

Emilyan Stankev has drawn a table full of coloured pencils surrounding toy vans, perhaps the little boy is sending a  letter is to thank whoever gave him them. The Bulgarian post logo is on the vans of which on the 65 leva - a Citroen Jumper 2.2 and on the 1.50 leva - Citroen Berlingo 1.6 HDI

So now the letter is written time to post it

2004: Letter Boxes

This red cast iron post box appearing on the Malta stamp is a legacy of the British period in the Maltese islands, its royal cipher and crown familiar in the UK.  There are 160 surviving boxes in Malta and they have all been given protective status.

But back to motorised transport and thanks to Eeva who used these two Finland stamps on her envelope I have the stamp that won the Jury Prize for best 2013 Europa stamp (the one on the left) complete with postmen in those wonderful uniforms. I don't know what marque of postal bus it is but they were nicknamed the "Yellow Speeders". I would have loved to have ridden on one of those.  The Finnish Postal Bus service started in 1921 using a Benz Gagganau truck with wooden benches and a roof to give shelter from the rain, the one shown on the stamp looks much more sophisticated.   The first route was in Lapland and proved popular so soon expanded and by 1939 there were 60 route, the war interrupted the service and when they started up again in 1946 new routes opened and by its peak in 1971 there were 222 routes and 420 buses  The other stamp is of course a modern postie and VW van.

Royal Mail have hidden away their Europa postal van entry as part of a 'Workhorses'  miniature sheet so thank goodness Guernsey Post have risen to the occasion and show vans on their rounds starting with, top row L to R for the

• Guernsey letter; one of the 74 delivery rounds across the Baliwick with a Daihatsu Hijet van

• Guernsey large letter; is the iconic Citroen 2CV La Poste van outside a Parisian café

• UK letter; shows a Morris Van delivering in the Lake District which is I find doubly exciting because that is near where I live.

Second Row:

• Int Letter;-  a Deutsche Bundespost VW Beetle in the Bavarian countryside

• UK Large letter; - a Swedish Posten AB Kalmar Tjoven (DAF) van in a Stockholm street.

• Int Letter 40g;  - USPS (which operates the largest civilian vehicle fleet in the world with an estimated 218,684 vehicles) Studebaker Zip van delivering to a mail box in an American suburb.

An entry to Viridian Postcard's Sunday Stamps theme - The Post