![]() As the Internet further reduces the need for paper mail, carrier loads have been getting lighter, accounting for fewer relay boxes. You may have noticed that a green relay box that was present on your corner, say, ten years ago may no longer be there. The algorithm resulted in a lower number of needed relay boxes, which cut down on cost. Using data from Canadian mail routes, the researchers took into account things like maximum mailbag weight (35 pounds), average mail volume (depending on day), and the number of mail carriers who can use each relay box at once. ![]() A 1992 study in the American Journal of Mathematical and Management Sciences titled “Locating Postal Relay Boxes Using a Set Covering Algorithm” details the number-crunching that goes into this. Ideally, these relay boxes are put at the most convenient possible locations along carriers’ routes. They are most prevalent in cities where USPS workers make deliveries on foot, and the boxes are either filled by the carriers themselves or postal workers in trucks who make larger delivery runs. ![]() Carriers can replenish their bags on the go, removing the need to constantly return to the distribution center (or carry everything at once). (They’re those blue hunks of metal bolted to the sidewalk with the creaky flaps that go reeeeaaaaaallllk when you pull them open.) But what about the dark-green boxes that don’t have any slots to accept mail?Ĭalled postal relay boxes, these work as storage containers for mail carriers as they make their rounds. ![]()
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