Postal Letter

Do Canada's postal workers know where USA towns are located?

If lets say there were no sticker or form that said "ship to USA" would Canada's post office personnel know that AL means Alabama and MI means Michigan and CA means California? As a USA citizen, I'd be scared to see what would happen to an important piece of mail that said Calgary, AB. And did not mention Canada. And had an invisible ink stamp or something? I think the mail would never make it to Alberta. It would be shipped to Alabama by mistake and then returned to sender. Do you think I may be right on this one? (That US mail to Canada works because there is a set location for all US outgoing mail to Canada.) So they just have to know it's going to Canada. From Canada customs, it gets sent to the proper postal code) but if stickers were eliminated, and Canada's postal workers delivered Canada/US mail, wouldn't they be more equipped at getting mail to cities within the states? than US postal workers delivering mail into provinces? but maybe I'm wrong. Maybe all MB mail goes through MN, all AB mail goes through UT, there's more ports of entry. Town in every province. (I swear I'm not cheating) Victoria, Jasper, Prince Albert, Dauphin, Thunder Bay, Quebec City, Cape Breton, Charlottetown, St. Johns, St. John, Iqaluit, Yellowknife, Whitehorse

Public Comments

1. The zip or postal code along with the info you have provided will always get mail delivered less info will mean longer delivery times.
2. You have no idea how the mail works. Postal employees may not be the brightest bulb in the light, but they are not as dumb as you portray or imagine. The abbreviations for provinces and states are as they are so that there is NOT any confusion. Postal codes and zip codes play an important part in routing of mail through Canada and the US.
3. The two-letter codes for provinces and states were created so there is no duplication. No two are alike. Honestly, your comment, "As a USA citizen, I'd be scared to see what would happen to an important piece of mail that said Calgary, AB. And did not mention Canada," sounds about right, in terms of the USPS not knowing where "AB" is. I suspect the reverse (a Canada Post agent seeing "AL") would be routed properly (i.e. immediately routed for US sorting). That said, it's primarily the postal/zip code that initially routes mail, not the street address, city, or province/state. The sorters "read" the code to first route mail, then secondarily sort mail via the specific address. In Canada, our postal code system uses both numbers and letters. This means there is almost an infinite number of combinations for postal codes. What that means is, most homes in Canada have a unique postal code, or one they share with just one or two other homes on their street. Some small towns have just one postal code for the entire town, but 80% of Canadians live in cities, so most have pretty unique postal codes. A whole apartment, office/industrial, or condominium complex might have a single postal code, as well. When I send snail mail (which is extremely rare, since all bill payments are done by telephone or online these days), where one would write the return address, I simply write my postal code and the number of my house. I have just one neighbour with the same postal code (in Canada), so if the letter needs to be returned to me for some reason, the inclusion of my house number will get it to me. I don't even need my street address, city, or province. ...Now, I wouldn't recommend SENDING mail that way, but I suspect it would be successful...since the postal code and street number should route the mail precisely (to a private residence with a unique postal code). My point being, if I enter my postal code into Google Earth, it goes immediately to a picture of my home (and that of my next door neighbour). That's how precise (Canadian) postal codes can be. ...Just F.Y.I. ;-) Happy mailing!
4. Yes they know the different letters of the different states. I believe that is one thing that they learn in the training to become postal workers.
5. if it's for the US then we put USA in the address...how is AL the same as AB..?..plus we use scanning equip in Canada, it's not Jethro sittin there reading it like they do in the US...
6. I send mail to the US almost daily and I have never used a sticker that said "Ship to USA". And as for Cdn postal workers, they really don't need to know where they are although I'm sure they do. With the volume of mail going from Canada to other points around the world ... they know. But even if they didn't know (or didn't care) the mail would still go through. Just the fact that it is going to the US is all they need to know. When they see USA or even a US zip code they don't sort it to the various States/locations. It just goes to a central clearing location for shipment to the US and from there YOUR postal service sorts it and sends it on it's merry way. Its the same way your mail comes here. If someone doesn't use USA or the zip code on it, or Canada and the postal code, then someone reads the conventional way and sends it on to where it is supposed to go or returns it to the sender for proper addressing. If, as you say, the piece of mail is that important then it's up to the sender to ensure that it's addressed properly.
7. The North American postal system is designed in a way to reduce confusion and help automate sorting. Most mail is never even touched by human hands. The mail gets loaded into a sorting machine, which reads the address that was printed on the front of the envelope (the side that has the stamp), and it will direct it based on these conditions: Is there a readable postal/zip code? If so, the code routes the mail to the correct mailbag for destination. So if it finds "35xxx" it knows to send to a bag destined for Alabama's main routing facility, and if it sees "T2x xxx" it will send that letter to Calgary, Alberta. So what if there is no postal/zip code? Character recognition software tries to read the address, and computers try to figure out if someone wrote a valid city/state or city/province combo on it. If it is able to determine that with a certain reliability, it will put the mail into a bag for that location. So what if the computers just cannot figure it out? The letter will get flagged for HUMAN review, and sent off the main letter sorting line to be reviewed by hand. That person will "eyeball" the address and try to figure out where the person wants to send their letter. If they can't figure it out, they will then return it to sender, if that is possible. Based on the where it was picked up, (mailbox, sorting station) it may be sent back to someone at or near that location to try and narrow down the sender and get the letter back to them. Personally, I would hate to see the piles of letters they probably have somewhere that contains unrecognized addresses to send to, and no return address! Storing that lost letter would be more of a hassle then having your mail go from Ontario to Alabama before being sent on to Alberta because someone put AL instead of AB for the address. One other thing to think about: The mail would never get sent to Alabama instead of Alberta (or vice versa) unless someone puts sufficient postage, because that would go via international mail instead of domestic mail. It is more likely to be returned to sender due to insufficient postage.
8. Do you stay awake thinking of this************
9. What? Did you think that mail sorters sit there reading each piece by hand? Not any more. It's all sorted by machines. If for some reason the machine can't sort it, it then gets looked at by a human who, aside from having a pretty good knowledge of place names(if they didn't have that before they started the job, they would very soon acquire it), has access to--guess what--maps and lists of place names, and sends it to the country it's intended for. That country then sorts it in its own mail system. I used to be a letter carrier. I can tell you that a lot of mail that's remarkably poorly addressed gets through anyway, even from overseas where English isn't the language. Here in Canada, lack of postal code will slow your mail down by a only a day at most times of the year. As for asking if Canada's postal workers know the names of towns in the US, that's far more likely than the reverse, US postal workers knowing the names of Canadian towns. I haven't been to most of them, but I can name at least one town in every state in the union. I very much doubt if most Americans can name one town in each province even though we have 1/4 as many provinces as you have states. Most of them probably can't even name the provinces.
10. Canadians actually listen & learn when they are in school and you would be surprised that we probaly know more about US history, US geography than you yourself.
11. A US address would have a zip code which looks completely different than a Canadian postal code.
12. 1. Mail is sorted by Zip/ Postal Code before anything else...so that eliminates 99% of your problems. 2. Mail enters the country from the senders location. For example if you send a letter from Detroit to Vancouver it will most likely cross over in Windsor Ont. 3. We use dogs and sleds to deliver our mail to our igloos. The dogs are trained to know the sent of each province the package is going to.
13. When I was working in Brandon, Manitoba, a new Applebee's that was opening up there was apparently delayed because a shipment of kitchen equipment was either sent to Brandon, Minnesota or Branson, Missouri instead...so I was told anyway. Legend, maybe...funny story none the less.