# Bad Handwriting: What do postal-workers do? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 29, 2001, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-handwriting-what-do-postal-workers-do/96003 "2001-11-29T21:20:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![abidude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bc79bd/32.png) [@abidude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/abidude)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2001, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-handwriting-what-do-postal-workers-do/96003/1 "2001-11-29T21:20:12Z")
Can letter-carriers or postal workers read bad handwriting on envelopes? If not, what do they do if the return address is illegible as well? I work with applications at my job and I am appalled that people wouldn’t at least put an effort to write a little neat on applications for thousands of dollars in loans. Even their numbers are illegible. God bless the people that have to read envelopes that most likely are written in a haphazard fashion. It’s probably been said here before but isn’t it a wonder that you can write something and it gets sorted, mailed, and delivered to somebody’s door for just $0.35? ---
**Author:** ![Big\_SUV](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Big\_SUV](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Big_SUV)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2001, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-handwriting-what-do-postal-workers-do/96003/2 "2001-11-29T21:25:38Z")
I’m not sure how it’s done now, but years ago I had a summer job at the Post Office. Unreadable addresses were passed around among the letter carriers and everybody would take a crack at deciphering them. It was surprising, and reassuring, that everyone took the issue of bad handwriting so seriously. If all attempts failed, the letter would go into a stash of lost causes, and every now and then someone would go through even these, for one last try. ---
**Author:** ![TheLoadedDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2001, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-handwriting-what-do-postal-workers-do/96003/3 "2001-11-29T21:35:45Z")
This problem is surprisingly small. The amount of hand addressed mail is less than it used to be. People email, pay their bills on the phone or internet, and long distance calls are cheap these days. Surprisingly though, here in Australia at least, mail volumes have steadily grown over the last ten years of the computer age, but most of this stuff is from business. We do get mail which is hard to read, but usually we can do it. One tends to get good at it over time. The post (zip) code is usually legible. Maybe numbers are easier, I dunno. Or part of the address may be unreadable (the town, for example), but clues in othr parts enable us to work it out. If we can read the return address only, then off it goes with a stamp: RETURN TO SENDER Unknown Refused No such street/suburb Address illegible **X** Moved Deceased The worst mail tends to be from overseas, especially from countries which don’t use Roman script. Arab mail is a nightmare. If all else fails, it goes to the Dead Letter Office where it is kept for a while, and destroyed if unclaimed. Valuable items inside are auctioned from time to time. ---
**Author:** ![Redboss](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8baadc/32.png) [@Redboss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Redboss)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2001, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-handwriting-what-do-postal-workers-do/96003/4 "2001-11-30T05:57:35Z")
And **Loaded** mate, does any of this ever make you, um, **disgruntled**? And you don’t own a gun do you? [sub]hehehe - it’s okay folks, he can take it [/sub] Red ---
**Author:** ![MattyG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ce7236/32.png) [@MattyG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MattyG)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2001, 8:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-handwriting-what-do-postal-workers-do/96003/5 "2001-11-30T08:57:08Z")
Both my parents have been canadian posties for many years now. As TheLoadedDog said, often the postal code is legible, which means they know the approx area which the letter is supposed to be delivered to. Often, the posties working that route have either seen letters with that poor writing before, or since they know the addresses, can decifer the writing. If there is a return address, oft they are just send back, since the last thing a postie wants to do is sit around trying to read letter addresses at 5 in the morning. Btw…if the Postal code is totally illegible, along with the address…it won’t even get down to the postie level. All mail is sent through a machine that automagically reads the postal code through OCR, and then sends it to the write depot for hand-delivery. If the machine cannot read the postal code, it sends it to another bin for entry by a human operator. If they cannot figure out the postal code, or read the address, it is either sent back to the sender (if they know who that is), or sent to the deadmail room. At least that’s the way it works up here in Canada. Eh? ---
**Author:** ![SlickUSA](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ad7895/32.png) [@SlickUSA](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlickUSA)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2001, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-handwriting-what-do-postal-workers-do/96003/6 "2001-11-30T13:24:57Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by abidude \* > \*\*It’s probably been said here before but isn’t it a wonder that you can write something and it gets sorted, mailed, and delivered to somebody’s door for just $0.35? \*\* I thought it was only 34 cents? ---
**Author:** ![booklover](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/85f322/32.png) [@booklover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/booklover)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2001, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-handwriting-what-do-postal-workers-do/96003/7 "2001-11-30T14:59:53Z")
I have a friend who has exceptionally bad handwriting & mailed me a letter—it was just returned to her with “street name unknown” marked on it, since the street name was the most illegible part. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2001, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-handwriting-what-do-postal-workers-do/96003/8 "2001-11-30T21:58:32Z")
A good friend of mine tweaks mail sorters for the Postal Service in Muncie, Indiana, USA. The sorters optically read address at an incredible speed. The computers have catalogued thousands of ways of writing. When the machine kicks out a piece as unreadable, and the humans can read it, they add that script style to the database. That’s how the system “learns” another style. The machinery reads both sides of the piece, by the way, and it buys the address on the side with the stamp…usually. ---
**Author:** ![TheLoadedDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2001, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-handwriting-what-do-postal-workers-do/96003/9 "2001-11-30T23:28:53Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Redboss \* > \*\*And **Loaded** mate, does any of this ever make you, um, **disgruntled**? > And you don’t own a gun do you? > \*\* Actually, just this week, I called a supervisor a “snivelling little cockroach”. Does that count as an “incident”? ---
**Author:** ![TheLoadedDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2001, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-handwriting-what-do-postal-workers-do/96003/10 "2001-11-30T23:37:59Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Redboss \* > \*\* > [sub]hehehe - it’s okay folks, he can take it [/sub] > \*\* **’boss** mate, it’s probably timely to remind you of our motto: Postal Workers - WE KNOW WHERE YOU LIVE!