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From: Don Y <blockedofcourse@foo.invalid>
Newsgroups: sci.electronics.design
Subject: Re: OT: USPS "informed delivery"
Date: Fri, 22 Nov 2024 17:00:26 -0700
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On 11/22/2024 3:19 PM, Jeff Liebermann wrote:
> On Wed, 20 Nov 2024 23:23:29 -0700, Don Y
> <blockedofcourse@foo.invalid> wrote:
> 
>> On 11/20/2024 10:45 PM, Jeff Liebermann wrote:
>>> On Tue, 19 Nov 2024 21:57:47 -0700, Don Y
>>> <blockedofcourse@foo.invalid> wrote:
>>>
>>>> I think most mail is photographed as part of the address scanning
>>>> and routing process.  Humans don't do the sorting.
>>>
>>> The USPS does not open a letter or package and photograph the
>>> contents.
>>
>> That wasn't what the above states.
> 
> Please re-read what I wrote:
> "The USPS does *NOT* open a letter or package and photograph the
> contents".

And *I* wrote that it photographs the MAIL.  Its contents
were not mentioned.

>> Clearly, the "address" that is
>> scanned is on the outside of the package/envelope.  "something" has to image
>> the address label in order to identify, at the very least, the destination
>> ZIP code to route the item to the next step in the process.
> 
> Yes.  It's the tracking number that the USPS stamps on every 1st class
> mail and package.  I'm not sure but I don't think they offer tracking
> services to bulk mail users.  The codes and labels have changed over
> the years:
> "USPS eliminating legacy codes, revising forms"
> <https://news.usps.com/2023/01/17/service-update-3/>
> With the tracking number, the USPS can identify the source and
> destination without having to open the envelope or package.

Tracking is concerned with the sender.  The photographing of mail
is primarily there to assist in the delivery -- recipient.

> Note that the intelligent mail barcode does not include the
> destination address, which is on a different label.
> <https://www.tension.com/blogs/how-read-intelligent-mail-barcode-imb/>

Their initial concern is getting the piece of mail to the correct
"delivery post office".

One there, mail is further separated by route (hence the financial
incentive to bulk mailers to presort their mail, by route -- instead
of just zip code or zip+4).  The individual letter carriers then
"case" the mail (sort it into a set of miniature mailboxes, one per
address) so that it can be loaded into trays in "route order".

[The individual letter carrier often has control over the order in
which he/she travels their "route".  The order of the boxes in
the "casing" step has to reflect this, "somehow"]

>> As the location of the address on the item is not standardized,
>> it makes sense that the entire object would be imaged in order to
>> locate the information of interest.
> 
> The automatic mail sorters can read (using OCR) an amazing variety of
> scribbled and illegible addresses.  For the few addresses that can't
> be read, a photo of the illegible address on the letter or package is
> sent to a remote encoding center, where real live humans perform the
> functions of the reading the address and printing a readable bar code

Yes.  There is a cost to this (USPS employees don't work for minimum
wage).  Hence the value of improving the OCR reliability AND the
processing speed.

> on the package.  I'm not sure what happens if an address can't be
> found.  I suspect there may be some special handling involved that
> doesn't involved opening the package or photographing all 6 sides of
> the box.
> 
> According to:
> <https://facts.usps.com/systems-at-work/>
> the USPS has 8,500 mail processing machines of various flavors.
> Presumably, bar code readers and printers, to determine the routing,
> are involved with every mail sorting machine.

And, for "informed delivery" each of those distributed sites
must be managed and maintained to ensure mail from ANY
sender to any recipient can be so "informed".

I.e., this has to cost them a fair bit of money, even if they
have the images available as a side-effect from their OCR
capabilities (without the informed delivery requirement, they
could discard those images as soon as the ZIP code bar code
has been placed on the parcel).

What if their server's initial attempt to contact the target
MX host fails?  How long will they keep the notification
queued?  If it is to be used as proof of sending, then
that would need to be longer than the expected delivery date!