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Improvements made in mail delivery service

Following some staffing adjustments, delays in mail delivery service have been eliminated, according to a report from Penny Guyer, manager of mail services.

US mail is generally delivered to the Distributed Mail Centers (DMCs) within eight to 16 hours, she said, while interdepartmental mail is delivered across campus in eight business hours or less. This standard has been tested and demonstrated in sample mailings

The recent adjustment is a step in the implementation of the reengineered mail system. The transisitonal period from the old system managed by Building Services to the new one has not been free of problems, as Tech Talk reported a few weeks ago.

MIT Mail Services handles a large volume of mail. In November, MIT Mail Services sorted and delivered a daily average of approximately 20,000 pieces of US mail and 14,000 pieces of interdepartmental mail.

One of the goals of the new process is the reduction of junk mail. Each DMC has a bin marked for misaddressed or unwanted mail. When an employee marks his/her mail "remove me from the list" and deposits it in the designated bin, Mail Services will contact the sender and request that the employee be removed from their mailing list. This is often an extended process since the first request is not always successful. Mail Services anticipates a 50 percent reduction in junk mail over the next two years.

Progress is continuing toward the centralization of outbound mail, Ms. Guyer said. By presorting by ZIP code and barcoding outgoing mail before giving it to the US Postal Service, the Institute realizes substantial savings in postage, as well as faster delivery service. The centralization of outgoing mail will proceed incrementally, as leases expire in departments with postage machines.

Comments or questions regarding mail services may be directed by e-mail to the reengineering mail committee at or to Ms. Guyer at .

[Note: this article arrived too late to be included in the Reengineering Updates supplement in today's paper.]

A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on December 13, 1995.

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