Post office

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A post office is a facility (in most countries, a government one) where the public can purchase postage stamps for mailing correspondence or merchandise, and also drop off or pick up packages or other special-delivery items.

1 Operations
2 Services
3 History
4 See also
5 External links

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Operations

In each city, mail is concentrated from post boxes to local post offices to regional sorting centers. At regional sorting centers, mail is sorted by city and sent out in trucks. In the U.S., almost all first-class mail that moves more than a hundred miles flies in aircraft. At the other end of a major route, the mail goes to another regional center, and is sorted to individual post offices, which in turn sort to streets.

Postal codes vary by country. In the U.S. the shorter "Zip" postal codes describe local post offices, while the longer postal codes specify individual carrier routes (or PO box number).

In US government post offices, odd-sized mail such as packages and large manila envelopes is picked from the belt, and is usually sorted manually. Sorting parcel post is one of the most physically demanding manual jobs in the U.S. workforce. Manual parcel post sorters often move several tons of mail per shift. These assignments are often rotated to avoid injury. Mail workers are required to lift 80 lb (36 kg) in order to sort parcel post.

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In contrast, at commercial express services (such as UPS), picked-up mail is moved by forklift and chute. Parcel sorting is usually performed by computer-controlled conveyor belts. Each belt has a bar code reader that identifies each package. Each belt moves past a series of stations that can push a package onto another conveyor belt. The conveyor belts feed directly into bins that are wheeled directly into trucks for the next transport stage. The computer notes which package enters which bin, which bin enters which truck or aircraft, and thereby tracks each package precisely.

In post offices, the traditional method of sorting is done manually, in many stages. In these systems, trained postal clerks "throw" standard-sized letters into pigeon-holes in a "case." When a hole fills, it is emptied to a tray. When the tray is full, it is wheeled to the next sorting station. Each case covers a certain range of streets in a city. Several people may throw the same case at different sorting stations. Large manila envelopes (called "flats") are sorted by a similar system, with larger pigeon-holes. Throwing flats is very tiring because flats are larger and heavier than standard letters. The clerks sort mail according to which route the mail is delivered on. Once the mail is sorted by route, it is passed to that route's carrier.

Mail carriers sort the mail again into delivery order using the route's case. Each address normally has a slot in the case, and in this way the mail is put into its proper delivery order. Once all the day's mail is sorted into delivery order, the carrier pulls it out of the case and places it, in order, onto trays. The carrier loads these trays into their vehicle or mail bag and delivers the mail to its final destination. Image:Old post office pavilion.jpg Many post offices now use automated or semi-automated sorting systems. These use machine vision systems to read the address. In the U.S., these machines use ink-jet printers to apply POSTNET bar codes to automate later sorting steps. Some businesses get postage discounts by presorting mail, and applying postnet for the post office. Many European countries also encourage machine-readable addresses, but take a different approach, specifying that they be printed in a preferred format, in a preferred font, usually OCR-B.

When the sorting machine decides that it cannot read an address, normally it rejects the letter. A human postal worker then keys the postal code or address and the machine will apply a bar-coded (or in Europe, OCR) postal code.

When a letter is to a vague, nonexistent or peculiar address, (such as the letters to Santa Claus by young children), the mail is routed to a very experienced clerk called a "nixie clerk." The nixie clerk determines if the addressee can be located. If so, the nixie readdresses the letter and forwards it, or if it requests address correction, returns it. If the addressee cannot be located and the sender has paid for return service, the nixie clerk marks the letter "Return to Sender." If there is no return address, the letter is returned to the last known origin, the "dead letter office."

Manual mail forwarding has been traditionally performed by carriers. In the U.S. each carrier had a list of all current forwarding addresses for the route. Usually, the carrier placed stickers on route cases with forwarding. With routing machinery, the mail is readdressed and sorted to the forwarding address by the machinery.

In U.S. post offices, most sorting is performed at night so that local mail arrives in the morning. Historically, in large European cities before the telephone, four mail deliveries were performed each day, permitting several business transactions to occur in one day. In those days, "special delivery" would cause a messenger to carry a restricted faster route on a more frequent schedule, or, in some cities, actually cause a messenger to be sent directly.

One of the fastest historic mail services that used manual sorting was train-based sorting. Small towns and trains would exchange mail bags on hooks, without requiring the train to stop. Mail clerks in the mail car would sort mail for the next city. For distances under a thousand miles, train-based sorting had delivery times comparable or superior to modern air-delivery.

In United States post offices, the FBI posts wanted posters for people to read and become familiar with, hence references to "seeing someone on the post office wall."

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Services

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Post offices also rent post-office boxes to people and businesses who prefer not to have mail delivered to their home or office.

In many countries, post offices include other functions, such as a place to pick up various government forms, to apply for passports and driving licences to send money to others, etc. In some countries, the post office functions as a financial bank and/or a central place to use public telephones.

The back rooms of a post office are where mail is processed for final delivery. Mail may also be processed in other post offices that are not open to the general public.

Some countries have a Chief Post Office to administer post offices throughout the country, or a CPO in various large cities to administer the post offices in those cities or their districts.

Although American citizens usually refer to its facilities as post offices, the United States Postal Service has different names for different types of postal facilities, which are listed in that article.

When a package or letter is addressed to a recipient who has moved, most post offices forward or return with a stamped "ADDRESS UNKNOWN".

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