Lockheed Martin system to speed sorting of Postal Service packages

Packages sent via the U-S Postal Service should get where they’re going more quickly with technology that’s been developed by Lockheed Martin’s plant near Binghamton.

The Lockheed facility in Owego has received a 17-(m)-million-dollar contract to install nearly 40 optical character readers at bulk mail centers around the country.

The units will decipher handwritten addresses on packages which until now had to be sorted manually.

Bulk mail centers have been able to use automation only for parcels with addresses that included bar-codes.

Optical character readers have been used in recent years to handle letters at mail processing centers.

The new units soon will be used to speed up the sorting of packages at 19 U-S Postal Service bulk mail facilities.

Lockheed officials say the equipment will boost productivity at the parcel-handling operations.