4 ms·

I think most postal routing does something akin to (initial read) -> (write machine readable code) -> (internal mapping of code to location) -> (physical routin

by ethbro 6y ago

I think most postal routing does something akin to (initial read) -> (write machine readable code) -> (internal mapping of code to location) -> (physical routing). And if it falls off the fast-path, remote human transcription is used at the origination tagging step. Expect even with error-tolerant encoding, sometimes the codes themselves get corrupted (smudged, misread, etc). In which case mail ends up at (corrupted code location) instead of expected. E.g. one bit-flip, which may or may not be physically adjacent.

netsharc 6y ago
Where I am it seems like online shops already have an API to work with the post (surely UPS/FedEx too?). They would say using the API "I would like to register a package addressed to [netsharc's address]", and the endpoint would probably do that and respond with a barcode that the shop would print and stick to the package. Then the postman would just scan the barcode when picking up the package, take it to the sorting office where there'd be more barcode scanning and automatic sorting based on the ZIP code stored in the database entry identified by the barcode... So the only reading of the actual typed address would be when the mailman double-checks to confirm he's delivering the correct packages for my address.