How the Post Office Delivers Your Mail

A post office is a facility that deals with receiving, posting, sorting, handling, transmission and delivery of mail. The mail is received from all over the world and redirected to the facility nearest to the receiver’s address where it will be convenient for them to pick up their mail. Some offices have delivery services and the mail is delivered to the addressees door step.

The mail that is delivered could be in the form of letters or parcels. In the old system that is still in use in most third world countries, the mail is sorted out manually in a back room at the facility and put in stacks heading out to the same location. In modern systems the sorting is done by means of automatic machines that are fast, efficient and involve less hustle than the old system. The mails are sorted and grouped to correspond with their area codes, along with the receiver’s postal address. In the local post office, the letters are put in letter boxes where the addressee accesses them by opening his individual box or are delivered by people appointed by the authorised postal system. One pays an annual fee to have a letter box and he is assigned a key and a postal address where his mail can be redirected to.

These facilities also give one a platform for sending out mail and parcels as well as post cards. When one wants to send out a letter, he purchases envelopes to enclose the letter in and stamps that he attaches to the letter before sending. The letter or parcel is weighed and the relevant stamp issued. The package is then taken for sorting and transmission to an office nearest to its destination. This office ensures that the parcel or letter is delivered to the right address or postal box.  To make this process easier and, the postal code was developed and this narrows down the destinations to more centrally placed offices. For a sender who does not know the postal address of the receiver, they can use a post office locator to get the address within no time.