Good penmanship.
Some folks have it. Some folks don’t.
Personally, I’ve been complimented on my penmanship in the past. But I’m the first to admit that there are times when I look at some note I’ve jotted down in a hurry, and I can’t decipher what I wrote down.
I’m sure this isn’t something exclusive to me. I’m willing to bet everyone experiences something similar every so often.
But what happens when bad penmanship becomes a problem? Say, when writing an address label for a package?
When the U.S. Postal Service encounters this situation, the item is sent to a special facility: the Remote Encoding Center (REC) in Salt Lake City, Utah.
CBS News pulled back the curtain on this facility in the story When the USPS can’t decipher bad handwriting, a facility in Utah comes to the rescue, including the original video broadcast.
Tens of thousands of pieces of mail are routed to the REC for a closer look and determination on where the item needs to go.
The story quotes REC operations manager Ryan Bullock, who says they recently processed one billion items. That’s ‘billion’ with a ‘B.’
All of that effort is dedicated to fulfilling the organization’s sole purpose: delivering mail entrusted to it to its final destination.
PHOTO CREDIT: A United States Postal Service contractor-driven semi-trailer truck seen on Interstate 5 southbound, near Mendota, California. (by Coolcaesar via Wikimedia)
