Mail sorting
Have you ever wondered how postcards get to you? I mean, we all know how to send them and we know it's our postman who delivers them - but what about the rest?
Wonder no more - we have found a great video that shows how the magic happens between the sender and the receiver. It documents a sample delivery through the UK Royal Mail but the process worldwide doesn't differ that much. Enjoy!
Quite impressive, isn't it?
36 comments so far
I bet Venezuelan process is NOWHERE near that.
I didn't think you were supposed to put money in the post, yes I know we all do it but I was surprised they openly showed it.
The local postie sorting the mail on the sack on the road was a concern. What if it was windy? I could see our postcards blowing away. Maybe that explains why some postcards arrive damp or evidence of being wet and the ID is smudged and unreadable.
And Australia Post don't deliver to less populated areas in Australia, wish the postie did to me only 15 km from the local town. I would offer him a cuppa as well if they did.
Interesting video
Those sorting machines often leave ugly marks on my postcards!
I wish there was videos out there for other countries as well as this was really interesting but I am sure the process isnt the same in all countries. Ithink it would also be very interesting to see mail from a smaller place far from a big "sorting senter" be processed.
Great video anyway, thanks for posting
I'm sure each country has its unique way of delivering their mail but it always amazes me when a card reaches its destination...
I'll share the experience with my students. They are going to love it!
sooner new techs would be necessary to cope with postcrossers enthusiasm!!!!
Sure would be fun on a 4 wheeler though... ("
Anyhow, I think these days a first class stamp costs 41p (no more 32p) and the next day delivery is only guaranteed for mainland Britain (no Scottish Isles as depicted in the film). In any case, it's a great service.
Also it made me smile the number of letters addressed only to "Adam" or such. When I was at Oxford we use to joke about having letters only address to us by our name and the name of the college we were attending, and still expect the postman to know what to do. i.e. "Adam Smith, Christ Church" should not end up in New Zealand.
Here in Ukraine it is officially forbidden by law to send passports (?!!) and money by post in envelopes (any - regular or registered). These items can be confiscated without refunding. But in practice its usually come safe.
I always wonder, if the foreign post has to go through some "country center post", or can go directly, from my post office (when the border is closer than the capital)....
True is, the cards come pretty soon, mostly.
I´m quite sad about China delivery, as I can see, lots of cards get lost there, maybe it´s trouble to read the "latin" transcript of address?
It was really interesting to see letters and postcards just whizzing through the system. We also saw the handling of machine illegible/missing ZIP codes (there was a room with 12 computer terminals, scans of the addresses were displayed on the screens and the employee entered the correct ZIP on a numerical keyboard - meaning they had to know most/all of the CZ ZIP codes by heart :-)) The guide told us that once there was some "chain letter epidemic" where people were sending letters with 10 CZK coins hoping that they would get much more money in return. Well, when the envelopes were dragged through the sorting machine, the coins started jumping out of the envelopes and flew through the room. Given the fact that they are around 8g heavy, it was not nice to get hit by one :-)
The visit to parcels sorting was very educative too... makes me wrap every package really well as I know what it needs to sustain ;-)