Newbie-Moving to Moultonboro

[Pineedles]

To answer the question regarding information needed in the address of a letter I hope I can shed some light on it without getting to technicial or wordy. A machine called a Multiline Optical character Reader/sorter MLOCR for short, employs a camera and software to read the address on a letter. It is designed, hence name multiline, to read multiple lines of an adddress and consult a database of US addresses and match it to the delivery point code (DPC), or 11 digit barcode, Those short and long bars at the bottom of an address represent the Zip Code, the +4, and the last 2 digits of your street number, and a check digit. Many of you are correct that the city is not needed to lookup the correct DPC but often Zip Codes are wrong and hence another element, such as the City is needed. My company makes these MLOCR sorters for private mailing companies and many foriegn postal services.

If anyone has any other questions please PM me.

[Soapmistress]

Originally Posted by Pineedles

To answer the question regarding information needed in the address of a letter I hope I can shed some light on it without getting to technicial or wordy. A machine called a Multiline Optical character Reader/sorter MLOCR for short, employs a camera and software to read the address on a letter. It is designed, hence name multiline, to read multiple lines of an adddress and consult a database of US addresses and match it to the delivery point code (DPC), or 11 digit barcode, Those short and long bars at the bottom of an address represent the Zip Code, the +4, and the last 2 digits of your street number, and a check digit. Many of you are correct that the city is not needed to lookup the correct DPC but often Zip Codes are wrong and hence another element, such as the City is needed. My company makes these MLOCR sorters for private mailing companies and many foriegn postal services.

If anyone has any other questions please PM me.

Good morning Pineedles, thank you for that very informative post! I do know that machines read barcodes for shipment, I print most of my shipping labels off on the computer, and of course it seems like most mail has a barcode on it now.

But what happens when a person writes an address by hand ? Is it true that those go slower in the mail, because a real human has to read it ?

[Pineedles]

When a handwritten adddressed mailpiece is unable to be read by the OCR software a flourescent barcode is appplied to the back of the envelope. In fact most all envelopes have these tiny little red bars on them. This code is a tag number that is associated with the image or picture of the address that the camera took. The mailpiece will go into a temporary reject bin on the sorter and will be run through the sorter again once a human being sitting at a computer terminal viewing address images that could not be read by the OCR, types into the keyboard the critical elements like street number, street, town, state, and Zip code. Then when the mail piece is re-run through the sorter it reads the barcode on the back associates the derived 11-digit barcode and the mailpiece is barcoded and sorted.

Many times the software can actually read some handwritten pieces and the termnal operator never needs to type more than a few characters into the keyboard. Software that reads handwritten addresses has gotten better and better over the years whereas today very few pieces need human intervention. To answer your question your mail will not be slowed down because it is handwritten, since the process happens so quickly even when hand keying is needed. The USPS has multiple centers setup around the country, with hundreds of people in these facilities keying.

Maybe more than you want to know, but the current barcodes are called Postnet barcodes, and as I said they contain the 11-digits. Starting early next year all barcodes will be IMB codes, or Intelligent Mail Bar codes. These codes will contain not only the 11-digits but the sender's address in the form of a mailer assigned code, plus other information that helps track the mailpiece.

[Soapmistress]

Originally Posted by Pineedles

When a handwritten adddressed mailpiece is unable to be read by the OCR software a flourescent barcode is appplied to the back of the envelope. In fact most all envelopes have these tiny little red bars on them. This code is a tag number that is associated with the image or picture of the address that the camera took. The mailpiece will go into a temporary reject bin on the sorter and will be run through the sorter again once a human being sitting at a computer terminal viewing address images that could not be read by the OCR, types into the keyboard the critical elements like street number, street, town, state, and Zip code. Then when the mail piece is re-run through the sorter it reads the barcode on the back associates the derived 11-digit barcode and the mailpiece is barcoded and sorted.

Many times the software can actually read some handwritten pieces and the termnal operator never needs to type more than a few characters into the keyboard. Software that reads handwritten addresses has gotten better and better over the years whereas today very few pieces need human intervention. To answer your question your mail will not be slowed down because it is handwritten, since the process happens so quickly even when hand keying is needed. The USPS has multiple centers setup around the country, with hundreds of people in these facilities keying.

Maybe more than you want to know, but the current barcodes are called Postnet barcodes, and as I said they contain the 11-digits. Starting early next year all barcodes will be IMB codes, or Intelligent Mail Bar codes. These codes will contain not only the 11-digits but the sender's address in the form of a mailer assigned code, plus other information that helps track the mailpiece.

Call me weird, but I just love this kind of info. Very informative Pineedles..."news u can use" Are you the local Postmistress ?

[GTO]

Originally Posted by Soapmistress

Call me weird, but I just love this kind of info. Very informative Pineedles..."news u can use" Are you the local Postmistress ?

Well, if you like that kind of info.....then next summer you'll have to visit The Lobster Pound Restaurant by boat....its right on the water....I hear they might even put in a drive through for boaters in the Spring

[Soapmistress]

Originally Posted by GTO

Well, if you like that kind of info.....then next summer you'll have to visit The Lobster Pound Restaurant by boat....its right on the water....I hear they might even put in a drive through for boaters in the Spring

OMG....no waaaaaay! Really ! I just have to know how this works, so it's like a floating restaurant? And you go out by boat ?

[SIKSUKR]

Originally Posted by Soapmistress

Very informative Pineedles..."news u can use" Are you the local Postmistress ?

Pineedles is no Mistress. Imagine Jeff in a dress?

[Pineedles]

Leave it to you Bill, to pick that up. I have a worn a kilt though. Hoot mun Hoot!

[VitaBene]

Colleen, Welcome to Moultonborough! It is a nice town with great residents, both full and part time.

The advice above is right on. This forum is such an asset to the region!