Simplicity, afforded in a high degree by the uniform rate, facilitates the administration and practical conduct of Post Office business, and is, therefore, desirable, even if a little unjust. Complicated rates are an unfailing source of irritation to the public as well as a source of embarrassment to the staff, and there is not much doubt that one feature of the parcel post which commends it to the public favour is the simplicity of its rates.[649] There is, moreover, to be considered the view that it is no part of the duty of the Post Office to provide services in towns or districts for which private industry gives adequate services, but rather to cover the whole country, so that the public may always have ready to hand a means of forwarding small packages of goods to friends or relatives, or traders to customers, in other parts of the country. Such a service has many features which distinguish it from business undertakings of the ordinary type. In this way uniform rates may prove justified; since if in regard to any local service, or the service between any two points, the uniform rate, which must necessarily in certain cases yield considerable profit, is found burdensome, it is in all such cases open to private industry to provide the remedy. In the case of light parcels the cost of the services of collection and delivery is much greater than that of conveyance; and the variation of the total cost with distance of transmission is small proportionately. The uniform rate can therefore be fixed near the level of the cost. But even for such parcels it is economically unsound. It cannot be fixed at a really low level, because it is to be applicable to a parcel sent across the whole territory of a postal administration; and with such a parcel, even if weighing only 1 pound, the cost of transportation is an appreciable item. The uniform rate for parcels is an expedient for smooth working rather than a scientific rate, and against the acceptance of uniformity of rate as a principle must be placed the fact that railway companies have not adopted it. The actual results of the uniform rate have not been altogether satisfactory. The small use of the post for the transmission of the heavier parcels appears to indicate that the rate for such parcels is, in general, too high.[650] For local traffic in small towns, where cost of conveyance is negligible, it is almost prohibitive,[651] and is much higher than the rates charged by competing agencies. The considerations in favour of a degressive rate apply with greater force to parcels of moderate weight than to the comparatively light packets which pass at the letter rate, and this feature should receive fuller recognition in the determination of parcel rates than has hitherto been the case.