in a combination document feed system and document removal assembly associated with the document feed system for removing documents one at a time from a stack of documents disposed in the document feed system and feeding each document into a document transport system : comprising a document removal assembly for providing a substantially elongated contact surface between the document removal assembly and a lead document in the stack of documents , the contact surface adapted to alternately contact the lead document and advance the lead document from the document feed system to the document transport system . the document feed system includes belts for advancing the stack of documents toward a document removal assembly , including a back plate adapted to provide a compressive force to the rear of the stack of documents . the back plate is driven at the same speed of travel as the belts advance the stack of documents , and applies a progressively decreasing compressive force to the stack of documents as the stack of documents decreases in size .