IN an increasingly digital world, one of the few handwritten mainstays remaining is sending a package through the United States Postal Service.
However, even the USPS can’t read every person’s handwriting, which is when they call in help from a special center that’s the last of its kind.
The USPS’ Remote Encoding Center (REC) in Salt Lake City, Utah is the last of what was once 55 total RECs across the nation, also holding the distinction of being the first one ever.
First opened in 1994, the center is home to over 730 employees as of April 2024, who each sort over 900 pieces of mail with illegible addresses every hour, eight hours a day.
“Just in the last year, we processed about one billion pieces of mail in the center alone,” said the REC’s operations manager Ryan Bullock to CBS News. “Every hour, somebody’s going to do about 900 pieces on average.”
While some of these legibility issues may stem from poor handwriting, accidents such as smudged or torn labels, wet ink that ran, and more can also earn an address its appearance at the REC.
