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A try at automated "zip" Hope for holding the line on postal-rate hikes still resides in

electronics and mechanization at the U.S. Postal Service It's 5:00 p.m. in Manhattan. While thousands of weary commuters scurry for homeward-bound transportation, a mountain of letter mail generated by the day's business activities is just beginning its own trip through culling, facing, canceling, enriching, and sorting equipment at Manhattan's main post office on Eighth Avenue between 32nd and 33rd Streets. Much of this machinery has been operational for 10-20 years, but is still quite "new" when contrasted with postal traditions of hand labor that date from the 18th century.

And the freshest innovations—computer-controlled optical character recognition for sorting letter mail, and the recently completed bulk-mail system for handling packages exclusively—are prime targets for critics grumbling about missent letters, parcel damage, and ever-increasing postal rates. Yet, like modern society's many other afflictions, the cure probably lies in pursuing even more imaginative technology. Jacob Rabinow, in-ventor of the 12-operator letter-sorting machine now widely deployed throughout the U.S. Postal Service (Fig. 1), said as much in testimony before the Postal Rate Commission in 1974. But Rabinow's main argument is that the Postal Service has never had the technical ex-pertise to make tough decisions and conduct, or even direct, research that would produce solutions to its enormous deficit problems (Fig. 2).

The USPS: a new name but no phoenix Chartered as a replacement for the original U.S. Post

Office Department in 1971, the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) was launched with the expectation that mail delivery eventually could become a self-sufficient oper-ation rather than continue forever as an outdated, heavily subsidized Government bureaucracy. Reorganization was based on the Kappel Commission report issued in 1967. This hard look at postal problems criticized management, patronage appointments, and the lack of applied tech-nology. Much of the projected economy mentioned by the Kappel report involved automating the manual sorting of letters and packages. During the early 1970s, several "state of the art" computer-controlled optical reading/ sorting systems were contracted for, tested, and then installed at USPS letter-mail facilities in New York City, Boston, and Cincinnati. In addition, all bulk mail was diverted from old routes within existing post offices to a newly constructed billion-dollar network of 21 regional centers designed just to handle packages. However, the evidence of dramatically increased postal fees plus a

Don Mennle Associate Editor

Replacing 12 operators normally used with the Burroughs let-ter-sorting machine, this computer-controlled mail-transport unit built by IBM shoots letters past its optical scanners at 12 per second. Such speed—and the associated fast stops for enve-lopes containing coins—causes about $800 a month In loose change to accumulate In the machinery.

continuing need for large Government appropriations shows that the USPS has yet to master the problems it was created to solve.

The patronage history of all postal management posi-tions prior to 1971, the monetary demands of postal union employees, the USPS*s relatively small research engi-neering staff, and Congress' strong influence over mail rates and related subsidies may help give perspective to advanced technology's limited but expanding role within the USPS. With this in mind, attention shifts to the most intricate and ambitious technical projects presently de-ployed for handling mail—the advanced optical character readers for letter mail in New York, Boston, and Cin-cinnati. Each was built under a separate contract with separate vendors. Even the design philosophies behind each were unique, as the USPS hedged its research bet by pursuing several promising ideas simultaneously.

Advanced read-sort for Now York The New York City 33rd Street/Eighth Avenue Post

Office was chosen as the scene for a parallel development effort to produce a new generation of "read-sort" equipment. Both International Business Machines (IBM) and Recognition Equipment Inc. (REI) were selected in 1970 from proposals generated during an earlier design-study contract to build advanced optical character rec-ognition (AOCR) equipment and put it into daily service at the Manhattan location. Each company attempted to take two existing 12-operator/305-pocket letter-sort machines (LSMs) and consolidate the input function to a single transport. REI used five small computers while IBM used one computer to control each transport pair. Total LSM speed was tobe maintained at 12 letters per second—not an excessive rate for the optics and elec-tronics, but a considerable problem for the transport mechanics Unreadable, stiff, or otherwise troublesome mailpieces must be culled quickly; otherwise, they jam the mechanism in a fraction of a second. Spectrum visited the New York AOCR one evening while it was operating, and saw that mail literally runs through the transports at machine-gun cadence.

From talks with REI and postal employees, Spectrum learned that the REI AOCR effort in New York was fi-nally terminated when major problems interfacing REI's transport with the LSMs persisted. Eventually, the IBM system was brought on-line for everyday use. Final pay-ment and acceptance has been made (to IBM) by the USPS. Postal technicians maintain the transports and most computer peripherals, while a service contract with IBM provides maintenance when, and if, serious prob-lems are encountered with the computer itself (Fig. 3).

However, the IBM "success" apparently has proved to be extremely expensive. Jacob Rabinow estimates the cost at around $10 million. And it's important to note that instead of buying more IBM AOCR equipment to handle the LSMs originally assigned to REI, the Postal Service

IEEE spectrum OCTOBER 1976 41

converted both machines back to their former 12-oper-ator configuration. Although both IBM spokesmen and postal authorities speak well of the New York AOCR, there are no present plans to place the IBM design in service at other U.S. post offices.

Besides the obvious consideration of expense, it should be noted that optical character recognition equipment has very particular tastes when it is served a sack of mail. Handwriting is out; so are certain color combinations of printing and envelope paper, skewed labels, or blurred characters. The machines are happiest with bulk mailings where identical-size envelopes have their addresses printed in a consistent location. This allows the transport operator to adjust the optical "window" so that splashy return addresses or extraneous markings on the mailpiece are ignored.

When Spectrum visited the New York post office, one AOCR transport was working a bulk mailing and the other was handling a miscellaneous mix of typewritten envelopes. Each transport has a "percent accept" meter that displays a record of how much incoming mail is being successfully sorted. The bulk mailing consistently rated 90-96 percent whereas the miscellaneous letters achieved only about 75 percent.

To keep these scores as high as possible, another ma-chine, called an enricher, is used to cull handwritten and other "unmachineable" mail before it reaches the AOCR. The enricher, built by Philco-Ford (now Aeronutronic Ford), has its own PDP-8 computer/controller and is completely separate from the IBM equipment. All culled and AOCR-rejected mail eventually must be sorted on the 12-operator LSMs.

Updated read-sort for Boston About the same time that IBM and REI began work on

their AOCRs in New York (1970), the Postal Service contracted with Philco-Ford for an improved version of its OCR I. This early optical character reader had been deployed at about 20 post-office locations, but had several serious limitations. It did not read street addresses (just city, state, and zip code) and could recognize only around a dozen different type fonts.

Tagged the OCR II, Philco-Ford's update would ef-fectively provide a back-up read-sort capability for the two AOCR projects being pursued in New York. Boston was the scene for the OCR IPs operational evaluation. The OCR II can handle mail with poorer print quality than can the OCR I and is capable of reading most type fonts, including foundry imprints. Handwriting is still unacceptable, but enrichers—like those in New York— weed out problem mail before the OCR II attempts sorting.

A major difference between the OCR II and AOCR is in the construction of mail-transport units. Two such transports are required for an OCR II-modified letter-sort machine to match the speed of a similar LSM fed from a single-transport AOCR. In terms of mail throughput, the New York AOCR has twice the capacity of Boston's OCR II. The single AOCR computer in New York con-trols two 12-letter-per-second transports whereas Bos-ton's single OCR II computer controls two six-letter-per-second transports.

Although the OCR II is slower and less sophisticated than the AOCR equipment in New York, it stands a much better chance of further deployment. John J. Wise, As-sistant Postmaster General with the U.S. Postal Service's

Research and Development Department in Rockville, Md., told Spectrum that a contract proposal for five more such units is presently under negotiation between Aer-onutronic Ford and the USPS. According to some long-range forecasters at the USPS in Boston, eventually 60 or more OCR II-type read-sort machines might be pur-chased. The rub here is that Aeronutronic Ford is not the same corporate entity as Philco-Ford, since major orga-nizational changes accompanied the shedding of the Philco name. Others in the optical character recognition business have suggested to Spectrum that what the USPS wants (a small production run of somewhat im-proved but still inexpensive OCR IIs) can no longer be obtained from private industry. This is true because the OCR II uses a flying-spot scanner and other dated tech-

[1] Widely deployed throughout the USPS, 12-operator letter-sorting machines have a throughput capacity of 12 letters per second. Mall Is automatically picked up— one piece at a time— from a row of faced, standing envelopes by a small suction arm (arrow), and placed ih front of the operator. One second Is al-lowed for finding, reading, and manually keying In the zip code before the next letter Is brought Into position.

42 IEEE spectrum OCTOBER 1978

nology that is no longer designed into new optical char-acter recognition equipment.

Read-code-sort for Cincinnati The third approach pursued by USPS through a con-

tract with REI has sought to make the mailpieces them-selves an active rather than passive part of the sorting process. According to this philosophy, typewritten ad-dresses need be "read" only once by an expensive, com-puter-controlled optical character reader. Before the mailpiece is sent on its way, a bar code containing all the essential information in the typewritten address is clearly printed across the envelope. This "escort memory" allows finer sortations down to the individual carrier route using automatic machines equipped only with low-cost, reliable bar-code readers. Such techniques, employing ma-chine-readable alphanumeric characters, have long been used to handle the millions of credit-card invoices that circulate between debtors and creditors, and are emerging as a way to process checks.

Cincinnati was selected as the site for installing the first read-code-sort system. Unfortunately, the project never worked exactly as intended, and has been the focus of much critical comment. Mr. Rabinow's Postal Rate Commission testimony implies that additional mainte-nance costs attributed to the new equipment more than offset the estimated savings in direct labor costs.

During a visit to the U.S. Postal Service's Research and Development Department in Rockville, Md., Spectrum questioned Rex S. Hayes, acting director, Office of Letter Mail Systems Development, about the reports of prob-

lems in Cincinnati. Mr. Hayes indicated that the huge volume memory needed by the "first sort" optical char-acter reader that read envelopes and generated bar codes on outgoing mail had proved very unwieldy. To generate a bar code that could be used down to carrier route sor-tation, the computer memory must contain full infor-mation on carrier routes in every part of the country. The constant updating required, plus the need to recognize and compensate for various abbreviations or small errors in written addresses when constructing the bar code, made the original scheme unmanageable.

Mr. Hayes further explained that a revised read-code-sort system based on USPS's experience in Cin-cinnati is being developed (also by REI). This system would handle incoming mail only, thus reducing the need for address-recognition/memory to just the specific re-gional delivery area served from one main post office. Bar-code sortation in individual carrier routes would then become practical.

During Spectrum's inquiry into the automation of letter sorting, it became clear that what the USPS really wants is some machine, or combination of equipment, that can accept existing letter mail, whether typed, handwritten, embellished, or strangely colored, and sort it out—no questions asked—while, at the same time, delivering a huge savings in labor costs. But even the most sophisticated optical readers are no match for such a polyglot input. What has been suggested instead is that the USPS put more constraints on mail users as an aid to efficient mechanization efforts. If this were done, mail would be restricted to envelopes of a standard size, shape,

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Fiscal year

1974 1975 1976

[2] Despite increased mall rates and the Introduction off some automated equipment In recent years, postal revenues have yet to cover annual op-erating expenditures. The dif-ferences must be made up by direct Government appropria-tions or subsidies.

Mennie—A try at automated "zip" 43

and color. Addresses, return addresses, and stamps would have consistent, predictable locations on the envelope exterior. Such restrictions are common in postal opera-tions outside the U.S., but (excluding the zip code) have not been a major factor in USPS mechanization plans.

Instead, the USPS issues.guidelines and sample en-velope formats to large-volume mailers, especially those whose letters are likely to wind up on one of the optical character reader transports. Aside from the promise of faster service for those who cooperate, the pitch is basi-cally an appeal for help. Turning guidelines into regula-tions would undoubtedly arouse the wrath of envelope manufacturers, bulk mailers, and others suddenly faced with retooling and/or dead inventory. And postal officials have traditionally been in a weak position when faced with angry, well-organized lobbies. "Grandfathering" could possibly provide an acceptable transition period.

The LSMs of here and now Mentioned at the outset of this report, the USPS has

hundreds of Rabinow's 12-operator letter-sort machines in daily service all over the U.S. These machines were built by the Burroughs Corporation, and, although the design is 19 years old, the USPS is still buying more of them. They use proven technology, postal technicians can

repair them, and spare parts are readily available. Problem areas are primarily the operator's tedious, re-petitive job function and the mechanical noise.

Each LSM operator sits at a console where letters are presented at the rate of one per second. During this brief interval, the operator must find the zip code, read it, and key it into the LSM. Correctly keyed letters are routed automatically from the operator consoles to a 277-pocket cubbyhole array behind the machine, where other postal workers unload or "sweep" the pockets as they fill with sorted mail.

Noise results from the multitude of chains, gears, and letter carts moving around as the LSM routes letters between its operator consoles and rear pockets. The USPS Research and Development Department showed Spectrum a rebuilt letter cart that resets with a fraction of the clatter associated with the original design. These carts are in production, and eventually will be installed in most older LSMs. Meanwhile, LSM operators observed in New York City have been supplied with earphones and piped-in music to help combat the noisy, environment.

On-the-job tedium has proved the most serious draw-

[3] The advanced optical character reader In New York CRy reads typed or printed mail by first finding the address Infor-mation on an envelope, Identifying each character therein, and comparing the address read with addresses on file In the di-rectory processor.

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44 IRRE spectrum OCTOBER 1976

back to LSM productivity (although it is still far superior to direct hand sorting). Job rotation has been introduced to keep operator attention high during a shift at the console, and this has reportedly increased labor costs. It is vital that error rates be kept low, since missent letters are a major annoyance to postal customers, besides being yet another drain on USPS finances.

Not all mechanized letter sorting is done on the large 12-position sorters. Often, the finer breakdowns are handled on single-position LSMs with one operator and one sweeper. The single-position LSM, also a Burroughs machine., is relatively inexpensive (about $10 000), but it needs a box of spare belts and bearings to keep running. We spoke with one postal technician about upkeep on the single-position LSMs, and were told that the special small rubber belts last about two weeks. Inside the transports were considerable powdery deposits—the remains of previous belts that had long since disintegrated.

Another interesting sorting machine seen during our visit in New York City was a bar-code reader from Uni-versal Business Machines that is controlled with a PDP-8 computer. This equipment is especially useful for sorting certain business reply envelopes and other mail that have been preprinted with address and bar code by the com-panies involved. Again, the problem mentioned was spare parts, only this time it involved the small incandescent lamp used to illuminate the envelopes as they pass the bar-code reader. Without the special lamp, the machine is useless.

By its very nature, much postal equipment is custom-made (USPS has the legal monopoly on letter mail). When spare parts are no longer available from an original vendor, it is almost impossible to find a second source. Candid comments volunteered by postal workers who use and maintain these machines regularly reveal a belief that an inadequate spare-parts inventory has resulted from shortsighted efforts to trim overhead expenses.

Big money for bulk mall Though the various optical character readers built for

USPS letter mail sortation undoubtedly use the most

[4] The major problems In automating the unloading of con-tainerized bulk mall wKhln the BMS are achieving an even flow of mall while holding damage to a minimum. Initially, the new 21-center bulk-mall system used contalner-unloadere that opened a hinged door on the containers while the contents tumbled forward onto a waiting conveyor (left). Now, an even flow and more gentle handling are accomplished by eliding the containers across a diagonal ramp so packages unload4

the top down" (right).

complex technology yet deployed for handling the U.S. mail, the money and commitments involved are quite small compared with the USPS's largest undertaking this decade—construction of its all-new bulk-mail system. Originally budgeted at $950 million in 1970, the total project is now nearly finished after an expenditure of $997 million. Postal officials are justifiably proud that this large undertaking is being completed so close to initial budget and timing (1975) predictions. We spoke with C. R. Coulson, director of the USPS Bulk Mail Engineering Office in Washington, D.C., at length about the bulk-mail system, and he estimated that the final costs will run between $1 billion and $1.2 billion, including all debug-ging and/or rework.

The finished bulk-mail system (BMS) will consist of 21 new regional processing centers and 11 auxiliary cen-ters (the auxiliary centers are existing post office build-ings modified for BMS use). All but two of the main re-gional centers are similar in size and equipment. The exceptions are the BMS centers for New York and Chi-cago—the oldest and largest facilities within the BMS, having served as prototypes for all later engineering and construction efforts. The BMS center for the New York metropolitan area (located in Secaucus, N.J.) also handles overseas and military mail in addition to its domestic duties.

The BMS design philosophy purposely avoided ex-perimental, prototype, or otherwise unproven equipment for iiiail handling. Human operators key all zip code in-formation at the various sack and parcel-sorting stations into the system's computer. Computers keep track of the tray assignments within the sorting system, and assign "secondary-sort" priority to the surge conveyors that accumulate items during "primary" or rough sorting. In this manner, the secondary-sort machinery is time-shared between the accumulations in seven primary-sort surge conveyors. Tables of correspondence in both primary-and secondary-sort equipment are updated together as each surge conveyor is emptied and the next full one takes its turn. All computer hardware and software for this mechanized sortation scheme were bought from Logicon Inc. in Merrifield, Va.

A major innovation within the BMS is mail contain-erization. Special wheeled aluminum containers are used that can be trucked between any of the post offices within the service area of the 21 mail-processing centers. Each center is equipped with an in-floor towing system that transports and routes containers within the center. In-bound containers go directly to a container-unloader, and

Mennie—A try at automated "zip" 45

outbound containers are routed to the shipping docks. Here, too, everything is under computer control. Prob-lems with the container towing system have been con-fined to the mechanical switch points that direct moving containers between two intersecting loops of the towing system. These snags are not considered serious, how-ever.

According to Coulson, the one important technology problem within the BMS involves the automatic con-tainer-unloaders (Fig. 4). The original design discharged parcels from full containers from the bottom with a simple door hinged at the top of the container. If the contents were a loosely packed jumble, they would tumble out as expected onto the waiting conveyors. But if the container was carefully "brick laid" for maximum pack-age density, packages would often stick before breaking loose in a furious rush·—which caused uneven mail flow (within the BMS center) and contributed to mail damage when heavy, fast-moving packages collided with smaller, lighter parcels.

The solution was a redesigned container-unloader that allows containers to unload from the top down in a steady, predictable fashion. Spectrum observed the redesigned container-unloader at work in Secaucus, and it appeared to operate well. The only problem we observed occurred when the incoming containers were first tilted back in preparation for their trip across a sloped ramp that acts as the container's door during unloading. At this point, some packages did fall out of the containers and onto the floor, a drop of about two meters.

Kudos, cops, and conveyors In an effort to solicit some further opinion on USPS

performance, Spectrum talked with Frederick R. Kappel, retired chairman of the board and chief executive officer of American Telephone and Telegraph. He was also head of the Kappel Commission whose 1967 report, analyzing post office problems and shortcomings, became the basis of the reorganization that resulted in the present USPS.

Mr. Kappel seemed favorably impressed with the bulk-mail system, explaining that the designers had ba-sically sound ideas and weren't afraid to stand up for them. He was quick to point out that such positive atti-tudes are the exception rather than the rule when USPS projects become snared in bureaucratic machinery.

The quantity of mall handed annually by the U.S. Postal Service has grown steadily for almost 50 years. Growth setbacks align with periods of economic depression, and the slack economy of recent years has had a noticeable leveling effect.

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Surprisingly, Kappel reserved his harshest judgment for the internal security system used by the USPS to insure integrity of the mails. This amounts to a private and ex-pensive facility to spy on postal employees while they work, presumably to prove or disprove suspicions. (Note: much of the postal inspection service's mission involves investigation and prosecution of mail fraud and the pe-riodic auditing of postal facilities.)

Evidence of this operation is abundant. At the two postal facilities visited by Spectrum, enclosed ramps with one-way peepholes run all through the work areas where mail is handled. The psychological effect is akin to the relaxed, friendly feeling of a prison exercise yard. Whatever the gain in security, it must surely be obtained at a huge cost in employee morale—not to mention the salaries of many people who contribute nothing toward moving the mail.

This console controls and monitors sorting equipment In the USPS bulk-mall center at Secaucus, N.J. Key points along the system's conveyor belts are scanned by television so Jams or equipment problems can be found quickly and corrected.

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IEEE spectrum OCTOBER 1976

C Λ Postal research: present and proposed

I At present, new technology is introduced to the U.S. Postal Service's mail-handling operations under the auspices of the USPS Research and Development Department in Rockville, Md. As was the case with optical reading, equipment, this department often oversees the efforts of outside contractors who perform the actual engineering and construction tasks. Spectrum was briefed on several such projects by USPS research personnel. These include the address mark-up system for handling all mail that must be forwarded when a person, moves, single- and multi-position; flat sorters for magazines and! large 'envelopes, letter-bomb detectors, a point-of-sale program for reducing standard window service (and increasing off-hour stamp sales) with the eventual goal of allowing self-service parcel mailings, and even an electronic message service for handling facsimile mail. The multiposition flat sorter now being installed in Philadelphia, Pa., will bring automation to mail that is now hand-sorted. In addition, it will allow sorted mail to be automatically loaded into large containers, eliminating the need for a manual sweep.

But is this effort enough? Jacob Rabinow, chief research engineer, Institute for Applied Technology at the U.S. De-partment of Commerce Bureau of Standards—and an outspoken postal critic—thinks not. He believes the USPS deserves nothing less than a top-rated research facility run by scientists (not management consultants or postal employees who have come up through the ranks). His testimony to the Postal Rate Commission in 1974 outlined the setup and staffing of such a laboratory, and we quote

I from a particularly succinct passage: I "Most good laboratories, like the Bureau of Standards

and Bell Labs, have been in existence for a long time and have slowly developed a tradition of excellence. They at-tract good people because of this tradition. Still, it is pos-sible to develop a good lab from scratch. There are occa-sionally new companies that do it that way and do great development work. An example is Polaroid; that's because Mr. Land himself is a great inventor and he can appreciate what other inventors can and cannot do. This is possible when the boss himself is one of the great technical men. It would be impossible if he had to depend on contractors and their proposals.

' 'Coming back to the question, 'How does one set up a i laboratory?' It is the same question as, 'How does one get ! great paintings?' Whom do you hire to produce great j paintings? Do you hire a management expert from the Harvard Business School or do you hire the best artists you can find? You do not have to know who they are; you can ask other artists. Eventually, from all the names, let the artists select the best two or three, give them enough money, and get out of their way. You'll get paintings. This was done during World War II with science. The scientists ran the scientific program.

"Anyway, If you want to set up a great laboratory, you have to have great leaders, because there is a Rabinow Law No. 65 that says that if the top man is no good, all the people below will be no good in the same way. So if the Postal Service wants good engineers, great engineers, great physicists, they must start now. It would be easy to prepare a list of good scientists who would be interested in the challenge of a $14 or 15 billion business [U.S. Postal Service] with almost no technology that's worth anything today."

A quite different assessment of USPS research activities is provided by Assistant Postmaster General John J. Wise. He explains: "The basic effort of USPS research and de-velopment is and should be directed toward the application of new technology to our unique needs. A great amount of basic research is being carried on by private enterprise In all areas affecting USPS operations. There is no need for the Postal Service to duplicate these efforts and expend postal funds in the process. Instead, we make the best use of our resources by keeping current with the latest tech-nologies and then adapting them to our mail processing, transportation, and vending equipment requirements."

A related point of interest concerns the many postal employees we spoke with in researching this article. From manager to sorting clerk, they often had something can-did or unexpected to say about the ways of the Postal Service or its latest equipment. For example, not long after we were shown a new conveyor belt for unloading trucks that could not be damaged if the truck were acci-dentally driven away before the belt mechanism was withdrawn, an excited dock worker "bad-mouthed" the whole idea. "No good" he said, "no torque like the old model—can't move the really heavy mail sacks."

A bit embarrassed, our host quickly routed us off to another corner where packages without zip codes were being marked up by a keypunch operator. The semiau-tomated system requires that address information be entered backwards until the computer has enough data to generate a correct zip code. Preprinted self-stick labels are then supposed to be automatically presented for at-tachment to the package. There was no ink available for the labeling machine, so the zip codes were being copied from a CRT screen by hand. A collection of used marker pens nearby suggested that today's shortage was by no means unusual.

Damage and insurance rates Many packages circulating through the BMS pro-

cessing centers are there because shipping speed is not paramount for the particular items involved, or favorable rates are available compared with charges made by pri-vate shippers such as the United Parcel Service. For in-stance, special low fourth-class rates for books and rec-ords attract much of this type of merchandise. At the bulk -mail center in Secaucus, we saw several containers full of unwrapped book-club offerings awaiting shipment to a damaged-parcel claim center in New York. We were told that these casualties are mostly unwanted selections, opened by customers who then attempt to return the books by using the original carton plus a bit of tape or string. The rough and tumble of even normal package handling soon makes shreds of these amateur rewrap attempts.

Finally, we talked with Arthur Turco—a former aero-space engineer turned mail-order businessman in Ana-heim, Calif.—about USPS performance. Mr. Turco has operated both a magazine and mail-bid auction catering to phonograph record collectors since he left Autonetics in 1969. His business depends completely on reliable, inexpensive mail service, and during 1976 the minimum insurance fee has doubled—from 20φ to 40φ.

Mr. Turco explains that the main purpose of insurance is assurance of delivery, not breakage. (Most insured parcels must be. signed for by the addressee; a pick-up notice is left if no one is home.) He reports little problem with damaged or lost packages under the pre-BMS sys-tem, and assumes the new steep rates must reflect in-creased damage claims somehow related to bringing the new bulk-mail centers on-line.

"Not so" says every post office official we contacted. "The new insurance rates were decided upon long ago by the Postal Rate Commission and their implementation at this time [during the BMS startup] is just a coinci-dence."

Whatever the case, Turco, and probably thousands of other mailers, are taking a close second look at United Parcel Service. Under the UPS fee schedule, all pack-ages automatically carry up to $100 insurance. ♦ J

Mennie—A try at automated "zip"

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