The Postmaster-General has twice exercised his right of revising the rates of postage, and in each case the rates were lowered. The companies have not exercised their right to ask for a revision of the terms of their remuneration, and the provisions of the Act therefore continue in operation. In the first complete year of the service (1884-5) the number of parcels conveyed was some 23 millions. The increase in the traffic has been large and constant. In 1912-13 the total number of parcels exceeded 130 millions. The service affords a great public convenience, and the simplicity of its rates is an undoubted boon. The uniform rate has, however, proved unsatisfactory in some respects. At all points at which the traffic would be profitable, the Post Office is open to the competition of private enterprise; but for that part of the traffic for which the uniform rate must inevitably be unprofitable (unless it be fixed so high as to be exorbitant for short-distance and average-distance traffic) there will naturally be no competition. The number of local, or short-distance, parcels is consequently small, and the number of parcels sent for long distances, to remote places, is comparatively large. No great use is, however, made of the post for the transmission of parcels of agricultural produce from rural districts. There is a moderate traffic in butter and eggs from Ireland to England, and in cream from the West of England. Proposals for the introduction of a specially low rate for agricultural products have frequently been considered, but there are obvious objections to the establishment of a special rate for a special class of traffic. Moreover, for parcels from country districts the present uniform rate is often ludicrously low. The cost of preparing and packing each separate small consignment for transmission by post is, however, considerable, and only the affluent are able to indulge in that method of obtaining food supplies.[410] The exceptional character of the Post Office traffic in parcels, and the small degree in which the rates of charge measure the utility of the service of transportation which they cover, are well illustrated by the statistics of the traffic, which indicate that the total numbers are unaffected by fluctuations in general trade, and that the reductions of the rates which have been made since the establishment of the service have had no appreciable effect on the volume of traffic.[411] The actual rates for the heavier parcels are probably more profitable than the rates for light parcels, since the principle of degression is not much recognized in the scale of rates. This view is confirmed by the fact that the post is little used for heavy parcels, the average weight of a post parcel being no more than 2·8 pounds. It is, as a matter of fact, not improbable that the parcel post service as a whole is conducted at heavy loss.[412]