Can a letter be tracked back to when it arrived at an office?

[norris9]

Can a stamped letter be tracked back to when it arrived at an office...

More specifically, can a handwritten addressed stamped letter (are these called flats?) be tracked back to when it arrived at an office.

and if so, is this data kept on record for a certain amount of time?

[ted_e_bear]

I'm assuming it's not tracked or anything, when QR codes first became a thing we used to get a daily update/bollocking of which duties hadn't scanned them them all the day before so presumably they got scanned by sorting machines when passing through the mail centre, anyway to check this you'd have to know the QR code number and also I've no idea if the d.o. coms can see historical info, even if they can I'd imagine the biggest hurdle would be getting them to admit to being able to look.

[norris9]

I'm assuming it's not tracked or anything, when QR codes first became a thing we used to get a daily update/bollocking of which duties hadn't scanned them them all the day before so presumably they got scanned by sorting machines when passing through the mail centre, anyway to check this you'd have to know the QR code number and also I've no idea if the d.o. coms can see historical info, even if they can I'd imagine the biggest hurdle would be getting them to admit to being able to look.

Yeah, should have stated it's stamped.

ok, so they can potentially look up a QR code number to find out when it came into the office?....

As far I I understand it magazine sized items and things like postcards and birthday cards are called 'flats'.... do these go through the sorting machines?

[ted_e_bear]

I'm assuming it's not tracked or anything, when QR codes first became a thing we used to get a daily update/bollocking of which duties hadn't scanned them them all the day before so presumably they got scanned by sorting machines when passing through the mail centre, anyway to check this you'd have to know the QR code number and also I've no idea if the d.o. coms can see historical info, even if they can I'd imagine the biggest hurdle would be getting them to admit to being able to look.

Yeah, should have stated it's stamped.

ok, so they can potentially look up a QR code number to find out when it came into the office?....

As far I I understand it magazine sized items and things like postcards and birthday cards are called 'flats'.... do these go through the sorting machines?

Ah sorry I've no idea plus if it's a stamped item I'd imagine there's no chance whatsoever of locating it's journey through the system.

Why do you ask out of interest?

[k979aaa]

Bugger all chance even big towns now have their mail took to the mailcenter 50 miles away not the the old days So I assume your safe. Unless it was a parcel and took it in to a branch they do have cameras if your sending a bomb most people disguise themselves for this reason. I have not sent a letter in two years so it was not me!

[norris9]

Ah sorry I've no idea plus if it's a stamped item I'd imagine there's no chance whatsoever of locating it's journey through the system.

Why do you ask out of interest?

Customer complained their letter was late. Gave a sent date and a delivered date....

Manager questioned me as if I'd purposefully delayed this letter....

I gave several reasons as to why a letter could be delayed....

One of those reasons I gave was 'It could have been lost/misplaced anywhere on its journey through the system' and I questioned whether it could have been delayed coming into our office....

He claimed he could find out when it came into the office - I'd be surprised if he actually could. From what you have said - I guess it was bullcrap.


At the end of the day I did not purposefully delay this letter, but you know what management are like - they love to pin things on you. Royal Mail are delaying a huge amount of mail at our office on a daily basis due to having no day off cover/annual leave cover for 2 years. If you go off for your long weekend - you're walk doesn't go out and you come back to 3 day's mail on the Tuesday.... which is another reason why the letter would have been delayed.

[R5001]

While new stamps are barcoded, as far as I understand it, this is for anti-counterfeiting (and s**t videos of shaun the sheep) not tracking letters.

Scanning the stamp QR code "outdoor" will simply return a message of "scanned in the wrong work area" (Or something like that). so after the MC, there's no tracking at all I can be sure.

Can't easily find the source but I swear there was something about ofcom saying no to tracking every letter.

[SpacePhoenix]

While new stamps are barcoded, as far as I understand it, this is for anti-counterfeiting (and s**t videos of shaun the sheep) not tracking letters.

Scanning the stamp QR code "outdoor" will simply return a message of "scanned in the wrong work area" (Or something like that). so after the MC, there's no tracking at all I can be sure.

Can't easily find the source but I swear there was something about ofcom saying no to tracking every letter.

If it's not a machinable letter it won't get scanned. The machines only use it to identify suspect stamps. Only Tracked and Special Delivery items get scanned in MCs

[midegarelu]

It used to be possible to run an LSM on a mode which would read the phosphor strips (provided of course that the letter went through a machine) which would give the time and location as it had passed through the system.

This information is at least 20 years old so I doubt if it's still in operation.

Having said that would RM seriously invest in a system that could track their own failure!

[norris9]

It used to be possible to run an LSM on a mode which would read the phosphor strips (provided of course that the letter went through a machine) which would give the time and location as it had passed through the system.

This information is at least 20 years old so I doubt if it's still in operation.

Having said that would RM seriously invest in a system that could track their own failure!

Would that record the address of where that letter was going to? or just be counting the numbers of letters coming in? I doubt it could read a handwritten address...


Ok, lets say they actually have all that data - they have a record of this letter coming into the office and which address it was going to...

The next thing that could happen is it gets missorted and/or misplaced. Could end up being sorted into another round's IPS and that round may not be going out for a day or 2 due to understaffing or the person on that duty could put it to the side for days knowing it's not for their round., but not bothering to put it back on the IPS racks.

There's so many things that could cause a long delay to a letter being delivered.

[post6675]

Bugger all chance even big towns now have their mail took to the mailcenter 50 miles away not the the old days So I assume your safe. Unless it was a parcel and took it in to a branch they do have cameras if your sending a bomb most people disguise themselves for this reason. I have not sent a letter in two years so it was not me!

I think there is a way to find the origins of the stamp though like what shop it went to and bought from so sendin anything through the post probably wouldnt be a smart move lol

[midegarelu]

norris9
As far as I can remember the information stored included the delivery address as well as each time the item passed through a machine.

[Tman]

Would that record the address of where that letter was going to? or just be counting the numbers of letters coming in? I doubt it could read a handwritten address...

Well it does, and RM had OCR V2 and V3 machines which did this 30+ years ago, and the route and tag codes give the delivery address plus a unique letter ID and the time and date the letter was first passed through a machine.
Nothing to do with when a letter pitched up at a DO though.

[funkflex55]

It used to be possible to run an LSM on a mode which would read the phosphor strips (provided of course that the letter went through a machine) which would give the time and location as it had passed through the system.

This information is at least 20 years old so I doubt if it's still in operation.

Having said that would RM seriously invest in a system that could track their own failure!

Don't see why they wouldn't. They have employed leadership that leads their own failure and they've put procedures in place that mean failure is inevitable. Why not track that failure too!

[noggin1969]

Do they