SALT LAKE CITY (ABC 4 news) - The busiest time of year for the U.S. Postal Service is just around the corner but there are some local Postal workers who are busy year round. Last year they processed more than a billion pieces of mail, and each was a puzzle.
Postal workers in Salt Lake are handling huge volumes of mail without every touching and envelope. They are the people who try to figure out what you meant to say when you put an address on your outgoing mail.
Gary Oliver has been deciphering letters and package gibberish for seventeen years. "The millions of pieces of mail that we process every day are mail pieces that are not able to be read at the plants."
When the automated systems at plants across the country come upon and envelope that doesn't make sense... the image pops up here.
"There’s a lot of mail pieces without zip codes without complete addresses, mail where the insert has been put into the envelope backwards and the address does not show through the window."
In Oliver’s seventeen years here he's noticed a few things. "It is amazing the different types of writing we get. You wouldn't appreciate it until you've actually had a chance to see it."
He says people also assume their mail will get where it needs to go. "We will get mail addressed to the president of the United States, Washington, D.C; we will get pieces of mail addressed to Santa Claus"
So, he says before you send of this year's Christmas list to Saint Nick, check the address, and check it twice because workers say a zip code would be nice.
