Description
Receive, sort, and distribute incoming and outgoing mail for USPS facilities and contractors. Examine and route mail to carrier routes, P.O. boxes, internal units, and dispatch lanes. Operate and load mail processing, sorting, and canceling equipment; clear jams and make minor adjustments. Verify addressing, postage, and documentation, and keep records of shipments, pouches, sacks, and dispatches. Perform related mail handling duties across the distribution floor.
- • Direct mail and parcels by established routing schemes using scanners, keyboards, or voice input.
- • Bundle, label, and stage sorted mail to designated docks or areas by destination and dispatch time.
- • Train new mail distribution workers on procedures and safety.
- • Distribute incoming mail to correct P.O. boxes, cages, or departments.
- • Operate scanning systems, OCR/bar-code sorters, and other distribution equipment.
- • Search address directories to resolve undeliverable or redirected mail.
- • Clear jams and restart sorting lines safely.
- • Inspect items for legible addresses, correct postage, required forms, and processable condition.
- • Open, label, and seal mail containers and trays.
- • Rewrap or recontainerize soiled, damaged, or broken parcels.
- • Move mail containers using tugs, pallet jacks, forklifts, or automated trains.
- • Hand-sort odd-sized or exception mail and separate items needing special handling.
- • Load and unload mail trucks; transfer containers to conveyors or sorting stations.
- • Hand-cancel stamps on letters or parcels when required.
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Public Service & Safety
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Tasks & skills:
O*NET occupational data (work activities, skills, knowledge).
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This site includes information from O*NET by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA), used under the CC BY 4.0 license. Career Clutch has modified some of this information for student readability. USDOL/ETA has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA.
Last reviewed: Jan 2026
