tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-563539329592161652.post744202644827862596..comments2024-03-21T10:12:22.611-04:00Comments on Courier, Express, and Postal Observer: The Proposed USPS Network: A Second Best SolutionAlan Robinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18015201735147037122noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-563539329592161652.post-81443982740471985912011-09-16T12:03:57.872-04:002011-09-16T12:03:57.872-04:00“The Postal Service operates multiple generations ...“The Postal Service operates multiple generations of automated sortation equipment. Most origination sortation is performed on older automation equipment while destination sortation and carrier route sequencing is performed on newer equipment.”<br />This statement is incorrect. With the exception of single piece first class cancelations, originating and destinating mail use the same equipment, some a little older some a little newer but all with very similar performance characteristics. <br />Only some of the equipment is capable of coding non-barcoded letters and it must be used on originating mail that is not barcoded. This equipment however is usually newer, not older, and is equally capable of sequencing letters once they have been barcoded. There is a surplus of this equipment available during origination because mailers have been incentivized to pre-barcode mail. This equipment is usually in use at each originating site as sequencing equipment for barcoded mail far more than it is used as originating equipment to barcode mail at the same site.<br />Single piece first class cancelations are performed on a different type of equipment. In some small rural originating offices with very low volume that is older equipment. In any remotely urban area, that equipment is newer than almost all equipment performing destinating sortation.<br /><br />“The new operating plan minimizes the use of older equipment by using newer equipment over more hours in a day.”<br />Actually the new operating plan minimizes the use of building space by allowing the elimination of significant amounts of equipment (old and new) that won’t fit into the existing smaller mail processing footprint.<br />P.S. The majority of the USPS’s basic letter processing equipment was originally manufactured between 94 and 98. Some is as old as 1990 and some is as new as 2006. The equipment manufactured between 94 and 01 is the most productive. The equipment manufactured before 94 is a few percent less productive but results in less employee injuries because it is more ergonomically friendly than the newer equipment. The 06 equipment is the least productive. It was designed to sort Readers Digest and while capable of that the compromises made in the design to allow for sorting thick items have made it slightly less capable than the other machines at sorting typical letter mail.uncommonsensenoreply@blogger.com