How does the mail get to us?

Question

Like get to the post office and then to us, get sorted and how it gets sorted.

i was just wondering.

Answer 1

I used to work for the PO, so hopefully I can explain it so that it makes sense. I'm pretty tired, so I hope it makes sense.

First of all, you need to know about local zipcodes.
Zip codes are set up so that there is a SCF office that takes care of the mail for several local offices. For example, all the mail for zip codes that start with the three digits 472 gets sent to the local offices from the Columbus, IN, Post Office. Columbus has the 47201-47209 zip codes. The other zip codes that start with 472 are assigned to the nearby communities in alphabetical order.

(SCF is Sectional something Facility)

When the mailman takes your mail from your house or from a collection box, it gets sent to the SCF for the first 3 digits of your zip code. They then send the mail to one major location in each state or district for processing. For example, just about all the mail sent in Indiana goes to the Indianapolis General Mail Facility (GMF) for processing. There, the mail is run through a machine which cancels the stamp and put the postmark on the letter. That machine is called the Mark.

The mail is then taken to the bar code sorter, which sprays the barcode on the bottom of each letter, if the address can be read by the machine. The bar code sorter and the OCR machine (reads the bar codes) sorts the mail by the first three digits of the zipcode for out of state mail, and 5 digit zipcode for in-state mail.

If the machines can't read the addresses, the mail goes to a letter sorting machine (LSM) where clerks sort the mail by typing in the first three digits, at a rate of about 1 letter per second. Mail that can't be sorted by the LSM is sorted manually by clerks sitting in front of letter cases.

Once the mail is sorted by the first 3 digits of the zip code, it's taken by truck to the Air Mail Facility( AMF) where it's placed on planes and flown to the area for those first 3 digits.

Once it arrives, it's taken to the GMF for that area, where it's run through the machines again and sorted to the 5 digit zip code. At some GMF offices, the mail is sorted to the carrier route before it leaves the building. It's put on trucks and taken to the SCF office for each 3 digit SCF office. Once at the SCF, it's taken off those trucks and taken by smaller trucks to each of the local 5 digit zip code offices in that area. Sometimes the mail gets sorted to each carrier route before the mail leaves the SCF for the local offices.

Once the mail is at the local office, if the mail hasn't already been sorted to the carrier routes, clerks sort the mail and give it to the carriers. The mail might be sorted by machine, or it might be sorted by hand at the SCF and at the local office, depending on how big the office is.

Carriers have cases with slots for all the addresses on their route, and they sort the mail into delivery order. They then take it out and deliver it.

It sounds complicated, but it actually works pretty quickly. I can send a letter from my house, it goes to Indy that evening and is cancelled, sorted, and then put on a plane that night. If I mail a letter to a local address, it goes to Indy, gets cancelled and sorted, and is back in my town and delivered the next day.

I unloaded trucks for a while as a mailhandler before switching to the clerk craft. I then sorted mail on the LSM, before switching to the flat sorter machine. That's the machine that sorts magazines and large envelopes. There's also a small parcel and bundle sorter machine (SPBS) that clerks key in zipcodes to sort small packages. Large packages have to be manually sorted.

I made good money, but I decided to go back to school.

Answer 2

My brother was a postal carrier.

Postal carriers pick it up from homes and businesses directly and from drop-boxes around your city or town. It's taken to the post office where most of it is sorted by computerized machines in a way that's automated and very fast, placed into outgoing trucks, transported by air or overland, depending on the amount of postage paid, then redistributed at central post offices where it's to be delivered, sorted and given to the appropriate handlers and carriers for delivery to homes and businesses.

My brother said that towards the end of his career he noticed how the volume of mail being delivered was declining dramatically due to the internet.

People just don't have as much need for the mail system to send letters, given phones, faxes, email, instant messaging and text-messaging.

He was delivering alot of advertisements and packages, but little else.