A lot of mail is delayed or misdirected because of incorrect barcodes. I see mail coming daily to my route that was miscoded and winds up in fl. when it was supposed to go to, say New York. Under certain circumstances, this mail may loop in the system for a while until it is pulled out and handled manually, and the bar code is corrected. There are many reasons piece of mail might be bar coded wrong, and I will explain a couple to the best of my understanding.
One of the biggest errors I see, is people making the return addresses too big, or businesses with big fancy logos. They do a mailing on Monday, and on Tuesday this mail comes right back to the original address in the DPS mail. This is automated mail, the carriers are not to even look at this mail until they get on the street. The computer is reading the return address instead of the mailing address, and is sending it right back to where it came. Or when you mail out a bill, make sure the companies bar code is showing thru the window or else the computer might pick up the wrong thing. The computer scans the letter from right to left until it picks up something it can read. So be careful when addressing letters. When a person puts their return address on the back, the computer might read that address and send it right back to them. Once a barcode is miskeyed, mail is often delayed, no doubt about it. I think the problem is not so much that postal employees can't read, its that computers are reading the mail, and when things go wrong, they go wrong in a big way. Now obviously the reasons I've mentioned aren't the only reasons for mail being delayed. Just remember, a computer is reading your mail so keep it legible, return addresses smaller and in the corner(especially if your a business, keep your logos small Don't have them come down halfway on the envelope) Don't put your return addresss on the back.
These are just my personal and unofficial suggestions made from my own experiences and observations. Just trying to help! Also, on my route, I leave the office and start delivering at 10 am and finish delivering at 3:30 pm, if I work overtime its later. That would mean some people on my route are getting mail at 10 and others at 3:30. There is really no way around it, some people are gonna get mail earlier than others!
Heaven forbid that the Postal Service hire folks that can READ.
