IN FAST-PACED WORLD, MORE COMPANIES OFFER FASTER MAIL DELIVERY

In the days when the United States was young, mail was delivered on horseback and could take weeks to arrive.

But then the need for expediency arose during the Civil War, giving way to the Pony Express.

Eventually, mail was placed on steamboats, locomotives, wagon trains -- anything headed in the general direction of the letter's destination.

Today, we use jet airplanes and tractor-trailer trucks to move the mail.

And since the advent of fax machines, satellite communications and teleconferencing, the expedient transfer of information has become a must.

That is where express mail services come into play.

Federal Express first started speeding packages around the world in April 1973. Today, it transports more than 1.9 million packages a day.

"We are truly an express mail service," said Shirlee Finley, a public relations representative with the Memphis, Tenn.-based company. "We offer three kinds of services -- all of them fast; all of them guaranteed."

The quickest Federal Express can get a package to most places in the continental United States is by 10:30 the next morning. The company can get a package most anywhere by 3 p.m. the next day, and can guarantee two-day economy service anywhere in the world.

"As long as a package will go through our aircraft door, we'll haul it anywhere," said Finley. "A lot of people think of us as a small-package or document carrier. That just isn't the case anymore."

In fact, in the past 20 years, Federal Express has shipped 17 classic Ferraris to Brussels, Belgium; docking plates from Houston, Texas, to Orlando, Fla., for the space shuttle landing; plane loads of fresh cherries; an 11,000-pound helicopter and a windmill from Denmark.

"Some things have to be cleared in advance -- to make sure we have plenty of room," Finley said. "Companies can also charter one of our planes to ship bigger things or live animals."

Finley said express mail has become an accepted way of doing business in the world today.

"It is our history that once we find a faster mode of transportation, we utilize it; people automatically move to that form," said Finley. "Now people are becoming accustomed to the immediacy and reliability of express mail services.

"When they hand us an item, they are confident it will arrive when and where it is supposed to," she continued.

Express mail services are also making their mark on the catalog shopping industry.

"If you think back five or six years ago when catalogs were not as popular as they are today, it never occurred to you that you could have your merchandise in a day or two," Finley said. "Now, you can order something on Dec. 23, and get it before Christmas, when before, if you didn't order something by a day or two after Thanksgiving, it would never get there before Christmas."

The express mail industry has expanded enormously over the past few years, making the types of services available grow by leaps and bounds.

Even the U.S. Post Office is into the game, offering express mail and two-day guaranteed deliver services.

"We have overnight delivery to most zip codes now," said Matt Peters, who works at the Cape Girardeau Post Office. "We deliver 365 days a year with our express mail service -- most commercial companies don't work on holidays."

The post office also offers two-day priority mail, which is essentially the same thing as shipping a package first class, Peters said.

"We also have registered mail services for people who need assurance that a package arrived, but don't necessarily need it there overnight," said Peters.

Priority mail is shipped by air daily. A truck stops by the Cape Girardeau processing station at 10 a.m., heads down to Sikeston and stops again at 2 p.m. on its way to St. Louis. The priority mail is placed on special, post office planes. Regular mail is shipped on commercial flights.

"About 95 percent of the packages shipped priority mail get there in two days," said Peters. "It's really a good deal for the price."

Perhaps one of the most recognized mail services is the United Parcel Service. Founded in August 1907 in Seattle, Wash., UPS now delivers about 11.5 million parcels and documents daily.

"We offer a lot of services -- both basic ground services and air mail services," said WIlliam Cunningham, account executive for UPS. "We can get just about anywhere in the continental United States in two days."

UPS has a size limit of 130 inches square and will not take anything that weighs more than 150 pounds.

"The reason we offer so many services today is because they have been asked for by our customers," Cunningham said. "We have adapted to their needs as best we could.

"We have traditionally been thought of as only a ground-service carrier, but we have expanded far past that," he continued. "We have a lot of ways we can ship things now."

UPS will pick up packages from a business or from certified UPS counters in cities all over the world.

UPS does not deliver on most holidays, but will make deliveries before noon on Saturday.

"If you think of UPS, we can handle almost all of your shipping needs without exception," said Cunningham. "There are not many other businesses that can boast that."

Cunningham said UPS will work with its customers to best fit their shipping needs.

"If a company needs us to be there at a certain time to pick things up, we do our best to be there," he said. "That's what you have to do today to survive -- adapt."