Each week, billions of letters, bills, advertisements, and
packages are delivered through all sorts of inclement weather, thanks to the
Postal Service. Employing approximately 685,000 employees allows our postal
system to deliver the mail in a timely and efficient manner. However, postal
workers are charged with more than just the task of delivering mail to your
door. They may process, sort, and provide customer service. They hold positions
as clerks, mail carriers, mail sorters, processors, and processing machine
operators. While some sort incoming and outgoing mail within mail rooms
throughout the United States,
others deliver mail to urban and rural residences and businesses.
Handling the needs of customers, Postal Service clerks, also
known as window clerks, sell stamps, money orders, postal stationery, and more
in post offices. They are also responsible for determining postage and ensuring
that packages are in satisfactory condition for mailing. Customers also seek
the assistance of Postal Service clerks to register, certify and insure mail.
Window clerks also assist customers in filing claims for damaged packages.
Postal Service mail sorters, processors, and processing
machine operators prepare incoming and outgoing mail for distribution at post
offices and mail processing centers. These positions are also commonly referred
to as mail handlers, distribution clerks, mail processors, or mail processing
clerks. As mail is delivered to the mail room, these employees load and unload
postal trucks and move mail around the processing center using forklifts and
hand-pushed carts.
Once mail has been processed and sorted, Postal Service mail
carriers deliver the mail to residences and businesses in urban and rural
areas. Duties of city and rural carriers, however, are similar. Most travel
established routes, delivering and collecting mail. Their job begins each day
at the post office, as they arrange the mail in delivery sequence. Automated
equipment reduces sorting time for carriers, allowing them to spend more time
delivering the mail.
In addition to delivering and collecting mail, carriers
collect money for postage-due and COD (cash-on-delivery) fees and obtain signed
receipts for registered, certified, and insured mail. Following delivery of the
mail, carriers return to the post office with mail gathered from homes and
businesses, as well as receipts and money collected during the day.
In spite of the use of automated equipment, the work of mail
sorters, processors, and processing machine operators can still be physically
demanding. In the mail room, workers may be required to move heavy sacks of
mail and place packages and bundles into sacks and trays. Many of these
employees work at night or on weekends, as most large post offices process mail
around the clock, and the largest volume of mail is sorted during the evening
and night shifts. These employees work under tight production deadlines and
quotas.
Size and Scope of the Postal System
Each day, postal workers deliver mail to every home and
business in the United
States. Each American citizen has access to
the postal service and pays the same postage regardless of where they live or
work. Here are a few interesting facts:
- More
than 212 billion pieces of mail are processed and delivered every year
a. 700 million pieces of mail are processed and
delivered each day
b. 29
million pieces of mail are processed and delivered per hour
c. 8,000
pieces of mail are processed and delivered per second
- Mail
is delivered to more than 300 million people at 148 million homes,
businesses and PO boxes in every states, city and town, as well as Puerto
Rico, Guam, the American Virgin Islands and American Samoa.
- The
United States Postal Service is the second-largest employer in the United States
with nearly 685,000 career employees
- The
United States Postal Service handles 46 percent of the world's card and
letter mail volume – delivering to more addresses than any other post in
the world
- More
than 832 million pieces of international mail was handled by the United
States Postal Service in 2007
- More
than 2 billion pieces of mail are forwarded per year at no cost to the
customer
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