Mondo Knows Facts
Postcodes enable automated optical sorting of mail envelopes
Alphanumeric mail codes guide high-speed postal sorters to arrange delivery routes
Postal alphanumeric codes like UK postcodes and US ZIP codes enable high-speed optical character recognition sorters to route letters automatically. Sorters scan code text and print fluorescent bar codes on envelopes, sorting thousands of letters per hour into delivery route order.
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Tags: post office, addresses, automation
Postcodes enable automated optical sorting of mail envelopes: the short answers
- Where does this come from, and can I check it?
- Alphanumeric mail codes guide high-speed postal sorters to arrange delivery routes. The figure is taken from USPS, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
- Is this really a everyday life fact?
- Yes. It sits on the Everyday Life shelf, one of 1,090 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
- What else can I read about it?
- The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.