Karohemd's World

OK, I haven't actually written any other parts (using that headline) but that's beside the point.

Today: The post office.
This morning, I went to the post office to send off a CD and only two people in the queue ahead of me (about 8 people) had business I would associate with a post office (sending a parcel and buying stamps), all the others handed in some form or other or picked up their pension or pay a bill.
As the name suggests, it's the post office, for sending and receiving mail, for purchasing stamps and other related material, nothing else.

An example I actually know about: Car tax.
Why do I have to fill in a stupid form, write an antique cheque and take them both to the post office to pay my car tax? It's now slightly more convenient for me as the post office around the corner from work now finally does car tax but previously, I had to go to the bloody one in town.
Why is there no way of paying this by bank transfer or even better, by standing order/direct debit (the standard method of paying bills in Germany for the last 40? 50? longer? years)?

Almost everyone has a mobile phone that has more processing power and memory than my first PC and high speed broadband internet but their banking (not to mention plumbing and other things around the house, but that's a completely different rant) is from the 19th century. I really don't get it.

ETA: What it boils down to is an inherit difference in mentality and the administrative (and social) structures/processes between this country and the one I grew up in.
And if I hear the term "historically" one more time as an excuse for why things are as they are, I'm going to scream. There is no reason whatsoever why things can't change, especially not in a period of 50 years or more.