Can anyone explain USPS package routing?

AZ2AK

AZ2AK

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So, I have been tracking a package and the routing is baffling me and my google-fu is apparently weak at the moment.

It's an international package from Canada to a US address (Alaska). Shipping began with Canada Post and I guess switched to USPS when the package hit the US. Apparently the last place the package left Canada from Toronto and entered the US in IL, where it spent three days before bouncing to MA, and then NH - apparently finally enroute today to "destination" but USPS customer service can't tell me how much longer it's going to take or if there are any other stops along the way. Since the destination is AK I'm confused why it went all the way to the East Coast from IL when the delivery address is the opposite direction.

If anyone has any idea how the routing process works I'd be interested in hearing it - especially since USPS "customer service" couldn't tell me.
 
This is the route for a different shipment, but the principle is the same:
original.jpg

I guess it's always been done that way, but before tracking nobody knew it....
 
I have a package on the way to me in California from Texas and it went to Mass now to NH too! I was thinking I got the wrong tracking # but now I have some hope!
 
A couple of months ago I had a package originate in AZ bound for HI. It travelled via Puerto Rico, where the status bounced between "acceptance" and "processed" at the postal hub there until the seller called them.
 
USPS
Shipped from Kentucky to Toledo,
to Detroit, to Illinois, back to Detroit, and finally to Toledo where it sat for the weekend.
 
Atlanta, GA

Chicago, IL

Cincinnati, OH

Dallas, TX

Denver, CO

Des Moines, IA

Detroit, MI

Greensboro, NC

Jacksonville, FL

Kansas City, KS

Los Angeles, CA

Memphis, TN

Minn/St Paul, MN

New Jersey NDC

Philadelphia, PA

Pittsburgh, PA

San Francisco, CA

Seattle, WA

Springfield, MA

St Louis, MO

Washington DC


These are all of the Network Distribution Centers that are used by the USPS. Every single piece of mail that they handle has to pass through one of these. How they decide which one to send it to is anyone's guess.
 
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Most of the time there is a problem..... Either the zip code is wrong or the clerk entered the wrong info. I just had a bow go from Ohio to Pennsylvania to Kansas City to Columbia, Mo.--I had to call and tell them the correct zip/address.
Most of the time it isn't the post office's fault.
 
Zip codes.

1. Originally, letters and packages were sorted by hand. Pick up the piece, read the address, toss it in the right slot or bin. Slow but reasonably sure.

2. Then machine processing came in. The operator had one second to read the address as the machine moved it past him, and he hit the keys to direct it to the bin for that zip code.

3. Then OCR / Optical Character Reading came in. A camera scanned the piece and in a fraction of a second, the computer sorted the piece and imprinted the zip code / bar code.

4. Once the machine sends the piece on its way to a misread or misprinted zip, it won't be corrected until it gets there, and sometimes, until it gets there and there and there, too.

At some point, a computer may catch an error and shunt the piece off for manual processing. (See 1. above.)

* ****** **** ****** *

When I started in the Post Office in NYC, I worked 2. machine processing, and later supervised 3. OCR. At that time, NYC was processing 10,000,000 pieces of mail a day. You can imagine how many the whole USPS had to deal with. That's why we went with the machines. Much faster -- but mistakes were hard to spot.
 
Esav Benyamin said:
Zip codes.

1. Originally, letters and packages were sorted by hand. Pick up the piece, read the address, toss it in the right slot or bin. Slow but reasonably sure.

2. Then machine processing came in. The operator had one second to read the address as the machine moved it past him, and he hit the keys to direct it to the bin for that zip code.

3. Then OCR / Optical Character Reading came in. A camera scanned the piece and in a fraction of a second, the computer sorted the piece and imprinted the zip code / bar code.

4. Once the machine sends the piece on its way to a misread or misprinted zip, it won't be corrected until it gets there, and sometimes, until it gets there and there and there, too.

At some point, a computer may catch an error and shunt the piece off for manual processing. (See 1. above.)

* ****** **** ****** *

When I started in the Post Office in NYC, I worked 2. machine processing, and later supervised 3. OCR. At that time, NYC was processing 10,000,000 pieces of mail a day. You can imagine how many the whole USPS had to deal with. That's why we went with the machines. Much faster -- but mistakes were hard to spot.
Click to expand...

Interesting, thanks for the info.
Maybe they should just do away with online tracking.
 
No. I would bet the percentage of these "world tour" packages is small. People appreciate information -- and even bad news is better than no news.
 
Your guess is as good as mine. I had a package that started in Washington state, was sent to Alaska....spent a week apparently, was shipped back to Washington state, was forwarded to New Hampshire....finally, and ended up here over two weeks later. I always figure that anything my tax dollars pay for must be, by virtue of being government-run, disorganized and worthless as shit!!
 
wjswiger said:
I always figure that anything my tax dollars pay for must be, by virtue of being government-run, disorganized and worthless as shit!!
Click to expand...

As one of the managers who ran it, without government assistance, I don't think much of your opinion.
USPS is supported by its own stamps, products, and services, not by tax dollars.
As a moderator here on Bladeforums, I don't think much of your vulgarity, either.
 
Esav Benyamin said:
Zip codes.

1. Originally, letters and packages were sorted by hand. Pick up the piece, read the address, toss it in the right slot or bin. Slow but reasonably sure.

2. Then machine processing came in. The operator had one second to read the address as the machine moved it past him, and he hit the keys to direct it to the bin for that zip code.

3. Then OCR / Optical Character Reading came in. A camera scanned the piece and in a fraction of a second, the computer sorted the piece and imprinted the zip code / bar code.

4. Once the machine sends the piece on its way to a misread or misprinted zip, it won't be corrected until it gets there, and sometimes, until it gets there and there and there, too.

At some point, a computer may catch an error and shunt the piece off for manual processing. (See 1. above.)

* ****** **** ****** *

When I started in the Post Office in NYC, I worked 2. machine processing, and later supervised 3. OCR. At that time, NYC was processing 10,000,000 pieces of mail a day. You can imagine how many the whole USPS had to deal with. That's why we went with the machines. Much faster -- but mistakes were hard to spot.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the response, I was hoping you could/would provide some insight. I'm pretty sure #4 happened in both cases that I've have a package get mis-routed or delayed in a loop of leaving and repeatedly processing through the same PO. You would think it would be a simple matter of allowing the software to recognize if the same package has made more than one trip though the same place.

I'm not entirely displeased by USPS priority shipping overall, but it can and should definitely be better.
 
AZ2AK said:
I'm pretty sure #4 happened in both cases that I've have a package get mis-routed or delayed in a loop of leaving and repeatedly processing through the same PO. You would think it would be a simple matter of allowing the software to recognize if the same package has made more than one trip though the same place.
Click to expand...

Hard to tie so many computers together, even in one processing point. Each sorter can have its own.

If they programmed each sorter to put a distinctive mark by the barcode, that would do it.
 
As much as people complain about the USPS (and most of the time it's something they did wrong, not the USPS) it's amazing what they accomplish day in and day out.

I've had nothing but good luck with my local PO. Everything arrives as it should as well as everything I've sent out via this forum

People want privatization (and usually the same are uninformed about tax money usage) but that is the last thing I want. Especially if the winning company would be FedEx. I've only had three things delivered to my house via FedEx.

One delivery arrived a block over from my house. That street's name is the same as my town and has the same number sequence. Unfortunately my house numbers are 1918 and they dropped it off at 1914. Wrong house, wrong street. And it wasn't even a FedEx vehicle, some third party contract. Basically a guy in a mini-van.

Give me the USPS any day.
 
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