Have you ever wondered how postcards get to you? I mean, we all know how to send them and we know it’s our mail carrier who delivers them – but what about the rest?
Wonder no more – we have found a great video that shows how the magic happens between the sender and the receiver. It documents a sample delivery through the UK Royal Mail but the process worldwide doesn’t differ that much. Enjoy!
Quite impressive, isn’t it?
31 comments so far
Our goal is to send ever more postcards to keep these loyal subjects both challenged and employed.
brilliant! great video - My mailman would love to drop off the mail via a 4 wheeler :D
There was a video like this in the German TV to a while ago. They even showed what they do with mail with adresses they can't read and gave tipps how you should do it right. ;)
Hahaha, good video.
I bet Venezuelan process is NOWHERE near that.
Couple of observations:
I didn't think you were supposed to put money in the post, yes I know we all do it but I was surprised they openly showed it.
The local postie sorting the mail on the sack on the road was a concern. What if it was windy? I could see our postcards blowing away. Maybe that explains why some postcards arrive damp or evidence of being wet and the ID is smudged and unreadable.
And Australia Post don't deliver to less populated areas in Australia, wish the postie did to me only 15 km from the local town. I would offer him a cuppa as well if they did.
Interesting video
Very interesting!
Those sorting machines often leave ugly marks on my postcards!
Sack on road technology is worrying. I think it might be more sack in van technology on a normal day without a camera team tagging along, I certainly hope so, that close to the sea I can imagine there being quite a bit of wind!
I wish there was videos out there for other countries as well as this was really interesting but I am sure the process isnt the same in all countries. Ithink it would also be very interesting to see mail from a smaller place far from a big "sorting senter" be processed.
Great video anyway, thanks for posting
Now i know what i am getting on price of postage stamp :) I loved the off road solution :) I could never imagine how many machine my card goes trough!
Wow! It was fun watching the movie.
I'm sure each country has its unique way of delivering their mail but it always amazes me when a card reaches its destination...
I'll share the experience with my students. They are going to love it!
Very interesting! It's hard to believe anyone would post a letter with only a name and no address on it!!
Very interesting! :)
Interesting video. A few years ago I saw a 1998 film 'Dead Letter Office' about the extraordinary lengths the Australian Post Office goes to in order to deliver undeliverable mail. Anyone else seen it?
Thanks for sharing!!! I enjoyed watching it and yes, I have thought about how they actually do the sorting in high volume before... now I know! :D
My kids and I loved the video---very educational----thanks for sharing!!!
very interesting!
Very interesting and entertaining video. I work for the US Postal Service and enjoyed seeing how it's done in the UK. Never had time for a cuppa on my route. That would have been great!
it's so cool, i would LOVE to work for post offices!
... and what do we do? our best to increse this amount of job!
sooner new techs would be necessary to cope with postcrossers enthusiasm!!!!
Oh, I don't even want to know what do they do to the mail here in Russia where a letter from Moscow to Moscow could travel for a month :)
I enjoyed the video, and wish our Canadian post was as efficient!
As a Canadian postal worker I can say it is pretty much the same here except the machines are a little different and Canada Post is constantly making changes to improve service but still mistakes are made sometimes. Both by humans and by machines! But...wow...Moscow to Moscow in 30 days??? I think we do next day to the same city. Anyways, it is a great place to work and I do my best to get the mail delivered safely!
Sure would be fun on a 4 wheeler though... ("
lol, I love the British obsession with the Royal Mail and sending greeting cards! It's a shame that the evil government wants to privatise this great social service. In case they do, the Queen is threatening to take away the "Royal" bit...
Anyhow, I think these days a first class stamp costs 41p (no more 32p) and the next day delivery is only guaranteed for mainland Britain (no Scottish Isles as depicted in the film). In any case, it's a great service.
Also it made me smile the number of letters addressed only to "Adam" or such. When I was at Oxford we use to joke about having letters only address to us by our name and the name of the college we were attending, and still expect the postman to know what to do. i.e. "Adam Smith, Christ Church" should not end up in New Zealand.
Great video to watch. Did you spot some postcrossing cards going through the machines? I did :-D
Those machines are amazing. Great video.
What an amazing video. Who would've known that all went on with just one card in the midst of 1,000s of others!! Well done!
Interesting video and educational too! It was suprising how much post go through those machines every day :)
"...and neither does his horse". LOL!
to Mundoo:
Here in Ukraine it is officially forbidden by law to send passports (?!!) and money by post in envelopes (any - regular or registered). These items can be confiscated without refunding. But in practice its usually come safe.
whoops! So much work with that! I´ve admired our postwoman even earlier, but now I will twice.... :-)
I always wonder, if the foreign post has to go through some "country center post", or can go directly, from my post office (when the border is closer than the capital)....
True is, the cards come pretty soon, mostly.
I´m quite sad about China delivery, as I can see, lots of cards get lost there, maybe it´s trouble to read the "latin" transcript of address?
I have been twice on a guided tour through the main mail sorting centre in Prague - Malesice.
It was really interesting to see letters and postcards just whizzing through the system. We also saw the handling of machine illegible/missing ZIP codes (there was a room with 12 computer terminals, scans of the addresses were displayed on the screens and the employee entered the correct ZIP on a numerical keyboard - meaning they had to know most/all of the CZ ZIP codes by heart :-)) The guide told us that once there was some "chain letter epidemic" where people were sending letters with 10 CZK coins hoping that they would get much more money in return. Well, when the envelopes were dragged through the sorting machine, the coins started jumping out of the envelopes and flew through the room. Given the fact that they are around 8g heavy, it was not nice to get hit by one :-)
The visit to parcels sorting was very educative too... makes me wrap every package really well as I know what it needs to sustain ;-)
I think it was so sweet how they offered their mailman a cup of tea (probably hit the spot after all that off road driving) and knew him by name :) I have no idea who delivers my mail. All I know is they are prone to dropping my mail in puddles...definitely a subject I would bring up over tea ;)
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