Using Fragile labels on USPS parcels.

[Darto]

Since I work at the post office I thought I would offer some observations from the inside, so to speak.
As a letter carrier, I sort mail for my one route at a tall desk, and within 15 feet of me a guy who is sorting the parcels for every route in this local post office (19 routes). He stands in front of a very tall metal cage on wheels that was rolled out from off the big USPS truck. The cage is full of parcels. Around him are 19 small canvas hamper on wheels, one for each route with a sign on it with the route number.

This clerk removes a parcel from the cage, reads the address, and tosses it into the correct hamper. All parcels are tossed. They fly thru the air and land in a hamper.
It's so close to me for an hour daily, that I hardly notice. Being on the overtime list I am often sent to another post office on my day off and the procedure is exactly the same at everyone of them. All parcels fly thru the air to their waiting hamper.

Except there is one class of parcels that are treated differently. The clerk will never toss them (on pain of being disciplined for each infraction). This class of parcels is any parcel at all that has a prominent sticker near the address that says FRAGILE. It is strictly forbidden to toss or throw any parcel that has that fragile sticker. On the other hand if there is no sticker then the clerk is in trouble if he does not throw it, because then he would be guilty of deliberately wasting time. It takes him about an hour every day. If he had to walk them all over to the hampers, it would probably take about 3 and a half hours.

The way the post office thinks is that every customer is getting exactly what they wanted. The customers who wanted a parcel not thrown have put on a FRAGILE sticker and their parcel is treated accordingly. The customers who don't care if their parcel is thrown, got what they paid for: faster service but less care in the handling.

I am not a new employee, I have been there some years. Lots of post offices that I have been to (some just for a few minutes when I was sent on an errand on my day off on overtime). The sorting area is about half the square footage of the entire office. You can't miss it. The guy sorting the parcels is doing it the exactly the same way in every single office I have been to. He is tossing most of the parcels.

I put fragile stickers on most parcels I mail. Images of Fragile stickers copied online and printed on the cheap with a color printer.

 

[necchi]

The customers who wanted a parcel not thrown have put on a FRAGILE sticker and their parcel is treated accordingly.

Thank you for sharing.
Can you show us what kind of "FRAGILE" sticker needs to be applied,, to be SEEN by postal workers?
What's it take? An 8 1/2 x 11 blaze orange on all six sides of a small priority box?
Safety Yellow dimpled in Brail?

 

[Darto]

Yes, I think you got the right idea and right spirit there. I'm surprised that so few of the parcels I receive in the mail have any fragile stickers. Or a Sharpie Pen spelling the word out for those with less time. Marking parcels Fragile goes back to the late black powder era. I once saw Gabby Hays mailing gun powder as a trick in a movie.

 

[Rocksolid]

You are right on mark with explaining things regarding fragile marked parcels. I retired last fall, from working the same job as you, Darto. Fragile stickers do make a difference, rather than writing fragile with a magic marker on the parcel/package. Stickers are more noticeable.

 

[Phil Coffins]

Thank you, I will not mark fragile on a package that doesn’t require it and will continue to pack any package like I expect apes to handle it. Postal workers needn’t be burdened with extra work, same as anyone else.

 

[Ames]

I write fragile on all 6 sides with a sharpie, and my clerk puts an orange fragile sticker by the label for me. Never had an issue except for sitting in a distribution center for 7 days.

 

[SamTex1949]

I will back up what Darto said. Worked in my local PO for 14 yr . Ill add, almost all packages are now scanned ( the bar codes you see. that becomes the most effective way of tracking , why you save the receipts and sign up for informed delivery where you can go in and see where the item is) NOT 100% sadly but considering the VOLUME handled daily . dont even try and imagine around Christmas time ! Also add on top of that all the craziness of the last few years.
NOW dont think you will just label every package "fragile" , better to get the label added when at the PO mailing it or added to mail label if preparing on line. As I observed those labels were recognized the most. NOW what would be great to see is a video of how packages get processed and handled before it even gets to your local PO !

 

[Bucolic Buffalo]

Those metal cages also serve a purpose when properly filled. Well, properly according to the Postal Service. A GPMC rated for 1200lbs is to be filled by tossing packages into them. It's a fast process. As it fills you close the doors and finish by tossing them over the top. Doing so means the packages are sitting haphazardly with lots of spaces between them. Limits the weight. When you do not know this and try to be helpful by neatly stacking 40lb boxes in a GPMC to the 1200lb limit. Those GPMC's get to a major hub and they start tossing more packages in them because they do not appear full. Overloading them. And then when a worker gets injured they start looking for someone to sue.

 

[Darto]

Our closest UPS counter is the same place the big brown trucks are parked and stored overnight. So the customer entrance is right by the loading dock (so the customer clerk can go check something quickly while talking to a customer). This means customers approaching from the parking lot can look inside the big door where the trucks back up to load. What I see is conveyer belts everywhere running this way and that. Packages moving around on rollers instead of flying thru the air.

 

[rickystl]

Thanks for the tip.

 

[sheriff john]

Very useful info. Explains precisely how the system works. Thanks.

 

[Cornbread]

Having worked as a UPS metro truck unloader one summer, ANY long box (the kind like we’d ship a nicely carved stocked muzzleloader in) takes the risk of getting caught in the conveyer belt system as it makes 90 degree turns from the dock/docks onto the main sorting line. When long boxes jammed the line, they had to be un-f’d and that usually resulted in torn boxes and spilled peanuts on the conveyer.

That was in the early 1990’s BA (before eBay and Amazon) so things may have changed as to the belt system.

I always amazed me how sharp corners and exposed medal edges were allowed to exist! Probably because the cost of paying for shipping damage was cheaper than refitting the entire facility.

Always place FRAGILE on parcels.

 

[2 shots]

FRAGILE seems to translate to DROP KICK ME