Manual Mail Processing Efficiency

Mail is processed manually when its dimensions or address quality prevent it from being processed on mail processing equipment or to meet service standards when machines are at capacity.Processing mail manually is less productive (which is calculated by dividing mailpieces processed by workhours charged) and more costly than processing mail on machines, impacting overall efficiency. Specifically, the Postal Service’s automated processing is six times more productive for letters and flats and nearly four times more productive for packages than processing manually. Our objective was to assess the efficiency of the Postal Service’s manual mail processing operations.