What “Processed through USPS Facility” means

What does “Processed through USPS Facility” mean?

It means the item went through a sorting operation at a USPS plant, which read its address and sent it to the right outgoing truck or tray. You'll see it worded as Processed through USPS Facility or Processed at USPS Facility on some items. USPS's current tracking help doesn't define it on its own and treats every scan of this kind as part of an item moving through the network, along with the arrived and departed scans.

What happens to a letter at each processing scan?

At the first plant, machines turn every letter the same way up, cancel the stamp and read the address. The letter then goes through a barcode sorter that reads its Intelligent Mail barcode and drops it into a tray for its destination. At the plant that serves the destination it is sorted again, and then once more into the exact order of the carrier's route. Each pass records a scan with the time and the plant, and that record is what PigeonTrail turns into the letter's timeline.

USPS labels each scan with an operation code that says which kind of sort it was. PigeonTrail reads those codes to decide whether a scan means the letter is still near you, has reached the plant near your buyer, or has been sorted for the carrier. Our Intelligent Mail barcode guide explains what the barcode holds.

How many processing scans does a letter get?

A letter gets one at its first plant, one at each plant it passes on the way, and usually one more when it is sorted for the carrier. A letter that stays inside one plant's area can have as few as two. The letter from Austin to Columbus in our letter scans guide was scanned at five plants over four days. More scans don't mean a slower letter, since a plant can read the same letter twice on the same night.

Why was my letter never processed by a machine?

Usually because it was nonmachinable. A letter that is too stiff, too thick, square or lumpy, such as a toploader without enough padding around it, is sorted by hand and never passes a barcode reader. It still arrives, but it has few scans or none, and USPS charges a $0.49 nonmachinable surcharge for it. Our letter checker tells you whether a mailer will go through the machines.

A faint or covered barcode has the same effect, and USPS's Inspector General found in 2018 that some letters reach the local post office "as raw mail that has not been sorted to delivery point sequence." USPS's Domestic Mail Manual says plainly that "not every piece is guaranteed such data or complete data."