The transcript describes the process of sorting mail in the United States. Almost all letters are processed automatically. When a letter is placed in a post box, it's taken to the closest processing center. Cameras and computers take a picture of the front of the envelope, read the address with optical character recognition (OCR), and pass it on to the right truck or plane.
However, if the handwriting is bad or the envelope is damp and the ink is blurred, the postal service sends the picture of the envelope to the remote encoding center in Salt Lake City, Utah. The job of the folks here is to turn scroll and blurred ink into actual addresses.
The OCR technology is so good that in 2021, as the last wreck remaining, they only keyed 1.2 billion images. The postal service has about 810 employees and they're going to be teaching Tom how to process some of this mail.
The process involves typing in the last name and first initial into a keyboard. The keyboard is not a standard one, and to make everything faster for them, they've provided them with a modified keyboard. The home row is asdf, which also works as your numbers.
The keying process involves extracting a small part of what's on the letter and comparing it to the known good addresses in the database. If it matches a couple of good addresses, you'll get a list and you'll choose out of that list which is the address you're trying for.
The process involves typing in the first three characters of the first word in the city name, the first character of the second word, and the two-character state or territory abbreviation. This is the three plus one rule.
If the machine can't read the handwriting, one of the keyers will type in the missing information, and the information goes right back to the plant.
The process involves typing in the zip code, city, and state. The machine at the plant sends it to the reject bin if both the machine can't read it and a keyer isn't able to decipher it.
The final test involves typing in the numeric, outward, and inward values. The speed with which you have to read and parse it is about 7150 keystrokes per hour.
The process is much tougher than it seems, and it's about four seconds for each one to keep up the pace.
Here are the key facts extracted from the text:
1. Almost all letters sent in the United States are processed automatically.
2. The US Postal Service uses cameras and computers to take pictures of envelopes and read addresses with optical character recognition (OCR) technology.
3. The Remote Encoding Center in Salt Lake City, Utah is the last remaining center of its kind in the United States.
4. In 1997, there were 55 Remote Encoding Centers (RECs) that combined to key 19 billion images.
5. In 2021, the last remaining REC keyed 1.2 billion images.
6. The REC in Salt Lake City has around 810 employees.
7. The center processes mail that the OCR technology cannot read, including handwritten addresses.
8. The center uses a specialized keyboard that is not standard, with modified keys to make keying faster.
9. The "three plus one rule" is used to key city and state information, where the first three characters of the city name and the first character of the state abbreviation are keyed.
10. The center has a 90-second time limit to key information for live mail, or it will be sent to a reject bin and manually sorted.
11. The center uses a database of known good addresses to compare keyed information and verify accuracy.
12. The job of keying mail is becoming more challenging due to the increasing quality of OCR technology, which means that only the most difficult-to-read pieces of mail are sent to the center.
13. The center is connected to over 300 processing plants across the country, including in Guam, Anchorage, Alaska, and San Juan, Puerto Rico.
14. If a piece of mail cannot be read by the machine or a keyer, it is sent to a reject bin and manually handled, and if it still cannot be deciphered, it may be returned to the sender or sent to the Mail Recovery Center.
15. Keyers at the center must maintain a speed of 7,150 keystrokes per hour to keep up with the pace of mail processing.