THE TRANSIT DEPARTMENT General Functions and Organization of the Transit Department The department which handles the operations incident to collecting country items is commonly called the "correspond ence," or "transit," department. The work of this department naturally divides into four parts: i. The collection of cash items.
2. The collection of non-transit items.
3. The analysis of accounts.
4. The sale of domestic exchange.
The department may specialize into four more or less separate departments, following these lines of cleavage and known as the " transit " department, the "country collection" department, the "analysis" department, and the "domestic exchange" de partment. The work of the four is so intimately related that efficiency is best attained by co-ordination under one person, the transit manager. Numerous subdivisions of these four depart ments may be created; for instance, the sorting of items may be delegated to a special rack division. The department may also be organized to fit: (i) the number of avenues by which the de partment despatches items for collection, and (2) the general divisions of the ledgers of the check desk department. To give a rounded exposition of the transit department, a scheme will be considered which is assumed to employ in the collection of items the facilities of: (I) a country clearing house, (2) a federal reserve bank, and (3) its own correspondents. Such a threefold scheme is, of course, becoming unusual as the country clearing houses are being abandoned and the collections are largely made through the federal reserve collection system.
Collection of Cash Items—Work of Night Force Cash items are received from the receiving teller, the mail teller, the note teller, the paying teller, the city collection tell er, the foreign division, and some few from other departments. The routine work of the transit department is cut into two quite distinct parts, that performed by the night force and that by the day force. The night force commences the sorting of checks at the analysis desk. The checks are sorted into groups according
to the exchange charge to which they are subject, and are entered on sheets for interest delays and exchange charges. If checks were collected universally at par, assorting on the basis of ex change charges would, of course, no longer be necessary. The checks then pass to another sorting table where they are sorted into packages to conform with the sections into which the depart ment work is divided. These sections are based upon the avenues by which the department despatches items for collection and according to the city at which the items are payable.
The items to be despatched through the federal reserve bank are divided into sections according to the length of time that credit is deferred, that is, immediate credit, one-day, two-day, four-day, and eight-day credit. Those to be despatched through the clearing house country collection department are sorted into sections according to states. Those items to be despatched to the bank's own correspondents are sorted into sections accord ing to the place of payment and correspondent; certain large cities or parts of a city to which many items are usually sent are given individual sections, and the other cities are grouped alpha betically; for example, Chicago would have a section by itself, but Woonsocket would be put in the T–Z section if the bank had a correspondent in Woonsocket, but otherwise in the Providence section, as the items would then be collected through the Provi dence correspondent. The breaking of the items into sections represents a highly complex and technical arrangement of detail and a comprehensive knowledge of all the routing arrangements is required in order to handle it. These packages of checks are listed and proved against the slips and letters on which they are received. Finally the night force ends its work by preparing and writing the cash letters for the federal reserve bank and country clearing house.