USPS Testing New Technology
The U.S. Postal Service will expand testing of Flats Sequencing System (FSS) technology to automate sortation of large envelopes, magazines, catalogs and circulars. The tests follow board approval of FSS last month. Currently, letter carriers manually sort flat mail before departing for their routes. The FSS equipment sorts flat mail at a rate of about 16,500 pieces per hour. Scheduled to operate 17 hours a day, each machine will be capable of sequencing 280,500 pieces a day to more than 125,000 delivery addresses.
A prototype FSS was tested last year at the Indianapolis Mail Processing Annex and a full-size pre-production machine is scheduled for installation soon at the Dulles, VA, mail processing facility, where it will operate six days a week from August 2007 to July 2008. The USPS will study and measure the system’s effect on transportation, logistics and work methods before deployment in 2008. Phase I of the FSS program calls for an initial order of 100 machines to be installed at 33 postal facilities beginning summer 2008.
“Delivery remains our largest cost, accounting for 43% of all expenses,” says Walt O’Tormey, VP engineering at USPS. “Combined with costs to serve almost 2 million new addresses each year, means we must pursue every opportunity to improve our efficiency.” www.usps.com
