Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site rti-sel.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!bonnie!akgua!mcnc!rti-sel!wfi
From: wfi@rti-sel.UUCP (William Ingogly)
Newsgroups: net.bizarre
Subject: Re: Those little colored stickers on mail
Message-ID: <311@rti-sel.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 25-Jul-85 12:05:53 EDT
Article-I.D.: rti-sel.311
Posted: Thu Jul 25 12:05:53 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 29-Jul-85 05:25:35 EDT
References: <151@brl-tgr.ARPA>
Reply-To: wfi@rti-sel.UUCP (William Ingogly)
Distribution: net
Organization: Research Triangle Institute, NC
Lines: 62
Summary: 

In article <151@brl-tgr.ARPA> wmartin@brl-tgr.ARPA (Will Martin ) writes:

>Those little stickers of various colors, shapes, and imprints that the
>USPS plasters on your junk mail and magazines always seemed pretty
>bizarre to me. I know they relate to sorting, and to the Sectional
>Center Facilities, in some way. Any ex-postalpersons out there who want
>to take a stab at explaining the arcane code and meaning behind them?

I worked for six years as a full-time postal clerk at the Rock Island,
Illinois sectional center facility (or SCF, as they're affectionately
known :-) in the late '60s to early '70s, so I guess I qualify as an
ex-postalperson. Here's more than you ever wanted to know about the
mail sorting business.

The P.S. may have changed the stickers, but back when I worked there
the yellow ones with the 'C' all went to a single city, the green
ones with the 'S' all went to the same sectional center facility, and
the orange ones with the 'D' all went to the same state for further
distribution. A sectional center facility is the central distribution
point for cities whose zip codes all begin with the same three numbers
(this is a generalization; there are exceptions). You would throw mail 
into a case (one of those things with the pigeonholes) or sort mail at 
an LSM station (automatic letter sorting machine) that had bins on the 
back. Some pigeonholes/bins were for individual cities, some for SCFs, 
some for whole states (these would be sorted into cities and SCFs at a 
major city in the destination state). The sorting scheme used is 
different at different P.O.s. Periodically, a case pigeonhole or LSM 
bin will fill up, and the person working the case or behind the LSM 
will make a little bundle with rubber bands, slap a little yellow or 
green or orange sticker on the top letter, and throw it in a shopping 
cart. A person who works at the pouch rack collects the bundles from 
the shopping carts positioned around the post office periodically and 
throws the bundles into burlap pouches (for surface transportation) 
or colored nylon pouches (for air transportation). These pouches 
are sealed and placed on trucks at dispatch time. The reason you 
only see the little colored stickers occasionally is that only the 
top letter on a bundle gets a sticker.

You'll also notice little numbers stamped on the backs of some
letters; these are automatically put on the letters by the LSM
stations when a letter is processed. Each station has a different
number so a quality control checker can go through the bins on the
back of the LSM and see who's screwing up. Everyone in the P.O. had to
periodically pass tests for accuracy and knowledge of mail
destinations to keep his/her job, and you only got two shots at it. My
specialties were city carrier routes and knowing which SCFs all the
cities in Ohio went to. Now, aren't you sorry you asked? :-)

There was a whole set of bizarre terms used in the P.O. as well; large
square metal-framed hampers for parcel post were called 'gurneys';
they were manufactured in Gurnee, Illinois, I think. Metal locks for
mail pouches were called 'L. A. locks,' because the manufacturers'
name had L. A. in it (as I recall). 'Flats' were anything larger than
a letter that got thrown into a 'flat case,' including magazines and
large manila envelopes. Yes, we'd read the magazines on weekends when
only a few of us were working. The strangest one I saw was called
'Casket And Sunnyside,' which was a professional journal for
morticians. Never saw so many adds for casket liners and embalming
fluids in my life.

Hope this was bizarre enough.
                                -- Cheers, Bill Ingogly