Postal Service Mail Sorters, Processors, and Processing Machine Operators

Prepare incoming and outgoing mail for distribution. Examine, sort, and route mail by State, type of mail, or other scheme. Load, operate, and occasionally adjust and repair mail processing, sorting, and canceling machinery. Keep records of shipments, pouches, and sacks; and other duties related to mail handling within the postal service. Must complete a competitive exam.

Job Task

• Accept and check containers of mail from large volume mailers, couriers, and contractors.
• Bundle, label, and route sorted mail to designated areas depending on destinations and according to established procedures and deadlines.
• Cancel letter or parcel post stamps by hand.
• Check items to ensure that addresses are legible and correct, that sufficient postage has been paid or the appropriate documentation is attached, and that items are in a suitable condition for processing.
• Clear jams in sorting equipment.
• Direct items according to established routing schemes, using computer controlled keyboards or voice recognition equipment.
• Supervise other mail sorters.
• Train new workers.
• Weigh articles to determine required postage.
• Rewrap soiled or broken parcels.
• Search directories to find correct addresses for redirected mail.
• Serve the public at counters or windows, such as by selling stamps and weighing parcels.
• Distribute incoming mail into the correct boxes or pigeonholes.
• Dump sacks of mail onto conveyors for culling and sorting.
• Load and unload mail trucks, sometimes lifting containers of mail onto equipment that transports items to sorting stations.
• Move containers of mail, using equipment such as forklifts and automated "trains".
• Open and label mail containers.
• Operate machines that seal envelopes and print postage and postmarks.
• Operate various types of equipment, such as computer scanning equipment, addressographs, mimeographs, optical character readers, and bar-code sorters.
• Remove envelopes or tape from postmarking machines.
• Sort odd-sized mail by hand, sort mail that other workers have been unable to sort, and segregate items requiring special handling.

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