Systems at work

Systems at Work

The daily operations performed by the Postal Service depend on an astonishing network of people and technologies that collect, transport, process and deliver the nation’s mail. The Postal Service operates hundreds of mail processing and distribution centers across the country. The employees in these facilities accept, sort and dispatch the nation’s mail.

• Postal Vehicle Service (PVS) operations includes more than 10,000 uniformed motor vehicle and tractor trailer operators. The PVS fleet includes 2,202 cargo vans, 1,880 tractors and nearly 3,200 Commuting within a 170-mile radius of their facility, PVS drivers travel more than 167 million miles each year.
• To move mail using surface transportation, the Postal Service drove more than 9 billion miles in 2023 — more than 23.8 million trips in more than 25,000 box trucks and tractor-trailers daily.
• To move mail through the air, the Postal Service flies 6 million pounds of mail per day, using more than 140 domestic airports.
• The Los Angeles Processing and Distribution Center is the largest processing facility at 725 million square feet.
• The Postal Service is the world leader in optical character recognition (OCR) technology, with machines reading nearly 98 percent of all hand-addressed letters and 99.5 percent of machine-printed mail.
• The Postal Service:
• Deployed more than 150 new package processing systems in 2023, which increased package processing by 4.6 million pieces daily. The new machines enable the fleet of parcel sorters to now process 46 million packages daily.
• Has 365 automated guided vehicles (AGVs) in 25 facilities. AGVs use sensors and navigation technology to move around processing facilities without human involvement.
• Has one of the largest material-handling systems in the world for moving mail. There are more than 200 miles of conveyors within postal facilities.
• Has the largest gantry robotic fleet in the world with 165 robotics systems moving 300,000 mail trays per day.

The Postal Service operates more than 8,500 pieces of automated equipment that process and sort U.S. Mail.

• The largest piece of automated equipment, the Enhanced Package Processing System (EPPS), sorts packages at 25,000 pieces per hour

• The Flex Rover Sorter (FRS) is a wheeled robot that sorts large and nonmachinable packages into containers. There are more than 600 rovers deployed at 35 sites across the country.

• The High Output Package Sorter (HOPS) is the newest piece of automated equipment. It can sort packages at a rate of 8,500 pieces per hour.

• The Automated Delivery Unit Sorter (ADUS) sorts packages and bundles of mail at a rate of 3,400 pieces per hour with a sort accuracy of 99.95 percent

• The Robotic Containerization System (RCS) sorts trays and automatically loads rolling containers or pallets

• The Advanced Facer Canceller System (AFCS) positions letter mail and postmarks stamps at 36,000 pieces per hour

• The Delivery Barcode Sorter (DBCS) reads barcodes and sorts letters at 36,000 pieces per hour

• The Automated Flat Sorting Machine (AFSM) sorts flat mail at 17,000 pieces per hour

• The Automated Package Processing System (APPS) sorts packages and bundles of mail at 9,500 pieces per hour

• The High Throughput Parcel Sorter (HTPS) sorts packages and bundles at 15,000 pieces per hour

• The Automated Parcel and Bundle Sorter (APBS) sorts packages and bundles of mail at 6,500 pieces per hour

• Tray sorting machines sort more than 10 million trays per day through conveyor systems

• Mobile Delivery Devices (MDDs) provide real-time scanning for daily delivery operations. There are more than 285,000 MDDs in use nationwide.

• Check out the Systems at Work video for more information (youtube.com/watch?v=WX16-52bHvg)