I recently moved, and in wondering where my latest credit card bill is, remember thinking “Well, my other mail has been forwarded” and it got me thinking…how is mail organized? Are there people paid to go threw bag after bag of mail and separate them according to zip code, where it’s later sent so other people can sort them by address, or are there machines that are able to scan and understand piss poor handwriting that make the separations for them? I always see images of mail rolling down slots and such, but that doesn’t really help.
A postman replies.
Step 1. You mail your letter/package etc
Step 2. It’s collected and taken to the local delivery office
Step 3. It is collected from there and taken to the distribution office (same day)
Step 4. Machines separate coded from uncoded mail
Step 5. Regular sized mail is separated by hand from larger items
Step 6. Machines sort the coded mail into bundles to be sent on to the offices responsible for delivery in that area
Step 7. The postman collects the bundles for his route and slots the individual letters into the appropriate house number/name
Step 8. He then collects the uncoded mail and follows step 7
Step 9. Larger items are collected from a “Large Flat” frame and step 7 applied
Step 10. Packets are collected from a drop bag marked with his route name
Step 11. The postman then delivers your mail to the wrong address (JOKING HERE)
This may appear to take a long time but from the time you mail your letter to the time the postman actually receives it for delivery is less than 24 hours.
It will take longer if your sender or you does not include post code/zip code on the item as these have to be sorted by hand, this can add another 12 hours on.
I think that’s about it
Oh Yes forgot this one:
Registered items are sent in sealed bags to the delivery office and the postman has to sign for these before they are given to him for delivery.
My son has a video called “There Goes a Mail Truck” that shows all the steps in the mail sorting process. It’s all very organized and automated–but for the life of me I still am in awe of the way anyone, anywhere, can drop a letter in a mailbox addressed to anyone, anywhere else, and have it get there a few days later.
The concept of ‘e-mail’ must really baffle you then =)
On a related note, how does they deal with redirected mail? Here in the UK, if you move house you can pay a relatively small sum and get your letters redirected to your new address for a couple of months. I assume the USPS offers a similar service (or does it?)
How do they flag up your old address so that mail gets plucked from the system and sent on to your new address?
Redirection of mail can be paid for a period of up to 12 months but most people usually go for the 6 monthly redirection. Shortly before the period is up a letter is sent to you inviting you to renew and I believe a similar sytem operates in the US.
As an aside ANYONE can be taken on a tour of a sorting office in the UK just to see how things happen and how fast we guys work .
All you need do is write to the delivery office manager and ask, you have to be up and outta your nice warm bed real early though if you want to catch all the action
You get a goodie bag on leaving, baseball cap, pen, the usual crap.
When you move in the U.S., to get your mail forwarded, you need to fill out a change of address card and put it in a mailbox. The mail you get at your old address will be forwarded with a little yellow sticker on it, showing your new address, and a note to “please alert shipper of new address”. There’s really no charge for forwarded mail, but I bet mail couriers can get a bit annoyed with the extra effort.
I work in internal mail, and I can safely admit that mail delivery sucks. It’s a hole-in-the-bucket job, and it gets real old real fast.
But I’m still doin it, what the hell…
“Step 3. It is collected from there and taken to the distribution office (same day)”
That office is 70 miles from here. Mail sent from my city to Monterey, which is about mile, is first sent to SJ & then to Monterey, thus, about 140 miles. That doesn’t sound very efficient to me.
The USPS does have machines that can read most well done hand writing, at least to pick up the zip code. Typed addresses and zip codes are nearly a breeze. Humans at sorting machines do the unscannable ones. (They look a lot like old punch card machines.) Once the zip code has been read, a POSTNET bar code is then printed on the lower front to speed things up later on. The bar code can be a short zip code only or can include the whole zip+4 if included. I have Wordperfect set up to print them automatically when I print envelopes. I figure it avoids a few chances of errors.
Presorted mail is a whole different story.
It may appear to be inefficient but it isn’t believe me.
What you have to remember is that when all the mail is collected from the post box there is stuff for all over the place, home and abroad, and all this has to be machine sorted (or hand if uncoded) before being sent on to the respective area delivery office or Airport for o/seas mail.