What Happened to My Flowers!

[IceWizard]

Here’s just ONE day in the life of the United States Postal Service. (Figures are averages.)

509 million — number of mailpieces processed and delivered each day

21.2 million — average number of mailpieces processed each hour

353,000 — average number of mailpieces processed each minute

5,890 — average number of mailpieces processed each second

206 million — pieces of First-Class Mail processed and delivered

What is the process international mail goes through when it enters the U.S.?

Mail entering the United States from abroad first arrives at a U.S. Postal Service Sorting Facility.

The Postal Service then sends packages to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) for examination and to assess duty, if any is owed.

CBP processing is required for civilian parcels as well as those sent from overseas military postal facilities (APO/FPO).

If CBP re-sealed a package due to examination, colored tape with the words "Examined by CBP" would be used.

Mail parcels must meet United States and international postal requirements regarding weight, size, and measurement.

Sorting and Delivery Process


Mail Flow Through National Infustructure


More info on Just How the Post Office Should Work and Why



Also
<:::::Just one example::::>


Why packages seem to “disappear” into the Richmond, California sort facility
by Larry Geller


It took a while, but I think I got the answer today on what happens to packages sent to Hawaii that are routed through the Richmond, CA sort facility. I wrote about packages disappearing into the black hole of this facility in three articles:

This stuff may be organic, but it’s no longer green

The Richmond, CA, USPS sort facility still out of sorts

Indefinite detention: the post office Richmond California Sort Facility

Together, they have receive more comments than anything else I’ve posted. It seems many people have been frustrated by losing packages that go through the Richmond Sort Facility.

Typically, it seems that packages are tracked going in. And they stay there ‘way past the expected delivery date.

Calls to various post offices to find out what happened to the packages don’t yield any information.

And time passes.

Senders are frustrated because the expected delivery date has long passed.

Here’s what I found out today from a postal employee who shall remain nameless.

Yes, packages are scanned as they enter the sort facility. But they aren’t scanned when they leave.

Inside the sort facility they are sorted, of course, and packages destined for Hawaii (or Guam, etc.) are loaded into containers.

Clearly, containers can’t be sent out with only a couple of packages bouncing around on the bottom.

So the container stays until it gets filled.

Then it is loaded on a boat. There is no outgoing scan because the package is inside a container when it finally exits the facility.

Now, in this computer age you’d think they could scan it going into the container and have the computer remember to post the scan when the container finally moves out, but no, they don’t do that. It just doesn’t get scanned.

The package is next scanned after it reaches the next sort facility (in Hawaii, etc.). I suspect that scan could occur on the same day it moves out for delivery, they are pretty efficient here.

I thanked the employee for the explanation (simple, isn’t it?) and remarked that the Richmond Sort Facility has seemed like a black hole to many people.

She said “it is a black hole.”

So you see why I’m not mentioning her name.

Bottom line, it seems that “expected delivery dates” for packages headed into a container at Richmond are pure fiction.

They could do better.



Please note that this is "outgoing" mail, but I'm almost sure the "incoming" is just as bad or worse!

[themadhatter420]

Wow, that's very interesting and crazy to think about