Does the Post Office weigh every single piece of mail?

Question

How does the USPS know if a particular piece of mail weighs even slightly more than the postage stuck on it? Does the weight of the stamp count against the postage?

Answer 1

no, the often rely on the postage buyer like myself to weight it properly before giving it to the PO. i do a usps pick up weekly, and weight and postage it myself. they never even get the chance to weight it themselves...

Answer 2

I've worked for the postal service for 12 years and I am currently working in stat programs. My job is to sample the mail to help determine costs and budgets. As part of my job I see all sorts of mail that has gone through our automated system that is short-paid. I know of no system that weighs every piece and kicks out short-paid mail. I have worked the automated machines, been a window clerk and supervised window clerks so I have some experience in the area.

Mail that is short-paid is SUPPOSED to be sent on to the addressee as postage due. It is then up to the carrier to collect the extra postage. We charge more because it costs more. Heavier letters take up more space and in some cases have to be manually sorted. Obviously a letter that has to be handsorted from New York to Alaska takes a lot more manhours than 41 cents.

When we determine whether or not a letter is short-paid we weigh the envelope with the stamp on it. If it is over we charge extra. The weight of the stamp is minimal tho' so if your envelop weighs 1.2 ounces the stamp isn't the problem. Even 1.1 ounces would be questionable unless you have several stamps on it.

If you think your mail is overweight and you don't want to go to the post office or a contract stations (most grocery stores where I live will weigh your mail and sell stamps) then put an extra stamp on it. An extra ounce is 17 cents. What can you buy with 17 cents? What can you buy for 41 cents? Not even a fraction of a tank of gas.

Answer 3

Lots of interesting answers,but even the correct ones don't take into account that if the postage is not a mailing label(i.e. just stamps) the machines have no way of knowing how much postage is attached. There is no bar code in a stamp. The Post Office is bluffing and relying on it's already overburdened carriers to catch over weight mail. If it has a stamp on it and it's a little overweight and the carrier likes you it will go through,if not, consider a bigger tip at Christmas.

Answer 4

the postal clerks are so good at what they do that they can tell by the feel if it is overweight or not, but if you stand in front of them and ask they will weigh it for you. I suppose it's what mood they are in if they will let it go thru or not. I never get any mail back for postage due. (I do get mine back because of the size of print and ink I use) No the stamp is too light to add to the postage.

Answer 5

No cause I sell on ebay and I slip things through all the time that weigh slightly more than what I say they do on the postage. Like if I have a package that weighs 18 ounces the post office wants me to pay for 2 pounds. I just say it weighs a pound and they never check.

Answer 6

The weight of the stamp does not count against the postage. Postal employees handle thousands of pieces of mail a day, and we are actually pretty good at detecting even 1/10 of an ounce over on an envelope. If I am working mail and feel anything that is even close to going over, I put it on the scale and check it. All mail that is mailed over the counter is checked if you ask us to, or if you ask us to put postage on it. If you just ask me for a stamp and put it in the drop box and I never handle the piece, chances are about 95% that if it is overweight it will be caught and the additional postage will be charged at the other end. This may be alright if it is your mother and she pays it, but if it is a payment, or an insurance claim, I can guarantee the insurance company isn't going to pay the extra. Just for info, for every penny gas prices go up, it costs the post office an additional $8,000,000.00 a year to deliver your mail. A one ounce letter costs 41 cents. That will deliver your letter in an average of 2-5 days anywhere from Florida to Alaska, from Maine to Hawaii, and if the people moved and put in a change of address, the letter will be forwarded free of charge to the new address, and all for 41 cents. A letter cost 10 cents when I was young and a gallon of gas was 27 cents. Now the letter is 41 cents and a gallon of gas is $3.17. Why in the world would any US citizen complain about postage when we are being held hostage by the oil companies who are making billions of dollars of profits and then have the gall to even publish it on the front pages of our newspapers? The US Post Office is a "not for profit" business. We break even. We operate on a budget which is not suplemented by tax dollars. We only make our money from the sale of stamps and other licensed retail products. We use the money we make to deliver the mail, to pay for equipment, to pay fuel and utility bills, and to pay employee salaries and benefits. There are no profits.

Hope this gives you a little insight. If you think your letter is heavy, do what I do. Put an extra stamp on it. Consider the cost of that stamp. It is nothing compared to the price of a loaf of bread, a gallon of gas, or anything else these days. (By the way, did you notice the second ounce went down from 24 cents to 17 cents when the price went up this time? Now a 2 ounce letter costs 58 cents instead of 63 cents)

Answer 7

Sherwan has the best answer but the postal worker doesnt deliver the mail. What we do when we pick it up from your house is when we get back to our offices we seperate stamped letters and metered stamped letters. Also we sort the large envelopes and parcels. That then gets sent to a Processing and Distribution Center. There it goes through the machines and such. The postage is so light it doesnt really affect the cost of the letter being sent.

An additional note to what someone else posted. When there isnt enough postage it goes one of two ways. We either attempt to deliver the piece and get the postage due from the person that it is being mailed to or we send the letter back to the sender and have them add the extra postage. Right now we have had to return alot of mail because of the postage increase. If you still have the 39 cent stamp get some 2 cent stamps or stock up on the Forever stamp. They are good forever no matter what the cost of stamps are and are only available for a limited time.

Answer 8

the post man picks up the mail, he delivers to the handling office, the office then sorts out the mail according to size and puts them to through the machine. the machine checks the weight and a optical scanner runs over the top of the mail and calculates the payed weight, the mark is on the stamps, hard to see by the naked eye, then they weigh it and if the the payed weight exceeds the weight your mail mail is put through, I have had the post office send a letter to the recipient asking for the remaining postage if they want the letter.

Answer 9

If you give it to a clerk he/she will eye ball it otherwise it will go into a processing plant where letters and packages will be filtered by size which is allot faster than weighing it.
Being short on postage will usually get your mail returned to you, in case of a letter 90% of the letter carriers used to put their on stamps on the letter rather then going through some reticules paper work to get that letter return to sender.
The Post office is a government agency that likes to look like a FedEx or ups, it is defiantly a government operation.

Answer 10

Yes, I mail alot of stuff and I go in to make sure I have the right postage on. Surprisingly alot of regular letters weight over the one once limit but alot of time the post office doesn't send them back

Answer 11

They must have some way to determine the wieght of each envelope in case the sender stuck on less postage than needed. The stamp does not weigh much, so it should not add much weight to the total weight of the envelope.