It’s 7:30 am and you’re a letter carrier . . . so take a moment and imagine the following as a typical workday. First, you walk into the office, clock in, and check in with the boss. Then, you load up the vehicle with the mail that is already prepared for your route. Finally, at 7:45 am, you jump into the vehicle, drive off and begin delivering the mail. At no point are you required to manually sort mail. Is that day far off in the future . . . or, is it just around the corner?
Currently, Delivery Point Sequence (DPS) letters are automated to the delivery point so that the carrier can take it directly to the street. DPS mail is picked up by the carrier on the way to the vehicle and does not need additional manual sorting. The purpose of the DPS program is to reduce the amount of time carriers spend in the office manually sorting letters, thereby reducing cost and improving accuracy and speed of delivery. Since 1993, when DPS was introduced, the share of city delivery routes receiving DPS letters has grown to more than 99 percent and the share of rural routes has grown to 86 percent. On average, these routes receive 88 percent of their letters in DPS order. The Postal Service’s goal is to raise the DPS percentage to 95 percent by 2010. The chart below depicts how the share of DPS letters and manually sorted (cased) letters on city delivery routes has changed over time.
Loading ... Loading ...Delivery is the Postal Service’s largest cost center accounting for more than 40 percent of expenses, and having carriers manually sort mail takes time and money. Carrier routes are configured to take eight hours to complete, and those eight hours include time spent in the office . . . primarily manually sorting mail, as well as time spent on the street. According to the Postal Service, over the last 15 years, it has recognized over $5 billion in savings due to DPS.
Now, the Postal Service wants to replicate for flats — large envelopes, magazines, and catalogs — what is done for letters by implementing the Flat Sequencing System (FSS). The FSS will sort flats into delivery point sequence. In FY 2007, the Postal Service processed 52 billion flats and 80 percent needed to be sorted manually in the office by the carrier. The plan is for FSS to reduce the amount of time carriers spend in the office manually sorting flat mail. Although FSS is not quite ready for primetime, the Postal Service is currently piloting it at the Dulles Processing and Distribution Center in Virginia.
If the majority of the mail is sorted in delivery point sequence using automation, it will dramatically change how a carrier spends his or her workday. Remember, you are the carrier and now you have automated sorted bundles of DPS letters and FSS mail. There was no need to manually sort any of this mail in the office. You only had to pick up the mail and maybe a few parcels before you headed out on your route. What does this mean? Well, for starters, because carriers begin delivering mail earlier, carriers have a longer day out on the street. In addition, more time dedicated to delivering the mail will likely result in carriers being back in the office within their allotted 8-hour tour, thereby reducing overtime and late deliveries. Further, avoiding the evening rush hour traffic may result in decreased auto accidents. Finally, because the mail is delivered more quickly, customer service may be improved.
What do you think? Do you think that the days of manually sorting mail in the office are coming to an end? It took 15 years to realize the impact of DPS; will it take longer for FSS? Will increased delivery points and decreased mail volume have an impact? Can you think of some other challenges and benefits that may be presented because of DPS and FSS?
This blog is hosted by the OIG’s Delivery directorate.
78 Comments
Leave a Reply
This FSS is out of control. trying to finger flats from the bag is a out of control. i have to stop walking so i can see what im grabing or when i get to the house i have to stand there and finsh fingering my flats in my bag also my dps. im a ptf so i have been working in other offices that dont have it yet but so far i have worked with the fss 5 times on a full route and have not made it back easlier then 45mins late from normal street time. good luck everybody its going to be a long christmas
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
10 
0
Now it is March 2011…..Fast forward and the city carrier overtime is growing…..Hmm…could it be the extra time on the street trying to juggle DPD, FSS, boxholders, raw mail, sprs, parcels and…..now a new barcode which you only know will need a signature when you scan it at the customer…Now you are fumbling for a pink slip, it is raining/snowing/ windblowing and you wonder again who thinks up these lame brain schemes without ever asking the people who carry it out their opinion of these schemes? Doesn’t anyone try to forsee the unintended consequences of their actions???
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
9 
0
wait till you meet core the computer program that will adjust your route to 8 hr it is joke
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
14 
1
My friend is a mail carrier of 28 yrs in Burbank, CA. She is beside herself with the workload this stupid new system has put upon her and all her fellow co workers. She is out on the street for 12 hrs, not 8!! AND her supervisor yells at her when she calls in and says she needs help on the route!!! She starts at 7:30 am, and is not home until 8:30 pm…..past her normal bedtime! Customers on the route are so upset that first, they trust her, have developed a mutual trust in seeing her all these years and not only is that gone, but now they are getting their mail hours later then they used to. That last bit doesn’t matter as much as her whole life is turned upside down, she is no longer a kid, and says the union is totally worthless..as I’ve heard this for years. GET REAL YOU IGNORANT SUPERVISORS!! You are not making anything better for anyone….no less your stupid selves!!! This is not SAVING MONEY, IT’S COSTING EVERYONE MORE MONEY!!!
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
7 
0
thanks for the OT!!!!!!!!!! With a smile!
Like or Dislike:
4 
0
I think this FSS has made the carriers job harder and more dangerous. Sitting in a hot truck or freezing in the winter because the heat does not work for many more hours than need to be. Sitting at mailboxes fingering through letters, flats, parcels and circulars and wasting lots of gas.
Like or Dislike:
2 
0
well,fss saves time in the office,but, the post office did not consider the adding time on the street, having a 3rd bundle every day, takes longer, it is more dangerous, and that if you dont have to collide the flats in the office to avoid the 4 bundle. i have 28 years as a carrier, i see no benefits for the amount of money spend on this machines, if one day everything will be run as one bundle,with no casing, maybe..right now the political flats came all mix up on fss, they cant even handle that…
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
I’ve never carried fss sorted mail but common sense tells me more time on the street means more potential injuries. Less time in the office working together means less contact with fellow workers means less of a team feeling, just a bunch of individuals on their own. The payback on these monstrosities will be decades, if ever.
Like or Dislike:
0 
0