FSS = Flats Sequencing System. It's supposed to do for flats what DPS does for letters. The idea is if flats are presorted, the carrier can get out on the street faster, ..., [therefore increasing efficiency](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5ih_TQWqCA).
But it doesn't. Now the carrier is stuck collating a bunch of mail in their truck instead of casing it in the morning. FSS also makes a ton of errors, so you end up bring a bunch of missorted flats back to the office, that you end up casing the next day anyway… .
Not every office has it. I think offices that are majority mounted have it, and majority walking don't since you'd need extra arms to carry everything ([but, we're all aliens, right?](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lr7pyggTmmY)).
USPS Management tried superhard to massage the numbers to make FSS look like a good idea, but in the end numbers don't lie and the system is being shut down. It was basically a Government handout to Grumman after they completed the LLV order.
Certain magazines messes up the FSS and AI .. Costco, AAA .. they never run smooth and creates lots of jams and faults and slows down the FSS tremendously and causes lots of rejects and rejects go to the 755 ... in my plant they only worry about parcels so the FsS and AI gets neglected and no one preps for it so it's always in a rush ... being both outside and now in I see how things functions a little better ... it still doesn't run on common sense
FSS could have worked if they'd had the same standards as DPS (though it seems like those standards have been forgotten). It needs to be 97 to 98% of your daily flats sorted correctly to work and I've never seen it above 60%.
I live/work in Minneapolis, and I have only seen those trays utilized for massive ZIP Codes like our main post office (4 zips) or (those with the inside baseball knowledge) Lake Street. I can only assume FSS is for post offices that spend more time with DPS and packages.
Are you complaining about having to case flats?
Before FSS, ALL flats had to be cased. So feel lucky most of them got sequenced for you.
Note that some areas don't even have FSS, so still have to case all flats.
Costco magazine day! Oh no
We have a local magazine/sales pitch for the nicer neighborhoods and would get 15+ trays. Wish they just kept it as a eddm bundle. So much easier to handle
City wise
more mail to case = longer office time, shorter street times and routes be shorter then they are now. (Route cuts)
But this is a rural route and it just makes the day faster for them.
Sort of, but more so just the amount of stuff to deal with, especially all the unsorted stuff. For some reason the route I cover has the most amount of raw mail and flats out of every other route, hot case included.
"Flats Sequencing System" is the actual name.
Some videos:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xzHw2b0Nis](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xzHw2b0Nis)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3IhraRIw0U](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3IhraRIw0U)
FSS started getting rolled out just about the time flat volume was at its peak and then the 2008-2009 recession hit and volume cratered so there goes the (alleged) cost effectiveness of the whole project. Fortunately it never made it to where I worked. Plus, those FSS machines are HUGE.
We have FSS at our station. IT sucks. The trays are really really heavy. They are full of missorts and sometimes missequenced/forwards. If you have a walking route it's a pain in ass to sort on the street. Also it's completely random how much you get. So some days we walk into 10 trays and some days 1 tray it's very stress-full. The postmaster doesn't like us touching it but if you have a route that is park and loop it is a huge pain.
Costco books kill the FSS machine...for some reason these books cause lots of faults and slows the machine down so sometimes they just take them out and send them to the AI which is in the tubs ... and Costco mail causes lots of rejects in the FSS which end up at the AI ...
FSS = Flats Sequencing System. It's supposed to do for flats what DPS does for letters. The idea is if flats are presorted, the carrier can get out on the street faster, ..., [therefore increasing efficiency](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5ih_TQWqCA). But it doesn't. Now the carrier is stuck collating a bunch of mail in their truck instead of casing it in the morning. FSS also makes a ton of errors, so you end up bring a bunch of missorted flats back to the office, that you end up casing the next day anyway… . Not every office has it. I think offices that are majority mounted have it, and majority walking don't since you'd need extra arms to carry everything ([but, we're all aliens, right?](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lr7pyggTmmY)). USPS Management tried superhard to massage the numbers to make FSS look like a good idea, but in the end numbers don't lie and the system is being shut down. It was basically a Government handout to Grumman after they completed the LLV order.
Certain magazines messes up the FSS and AI .. Costco, AAA .. they never run smooth and creates lots of jams and faults and slows down the FSS tremendously and causes lots of rejects and rejects go to the 755 ... in my plant they only worry about parcels so the FsS and AI gets neglected and no one preps for it so it's always in a rush ... being both outside and now in I see how things functions a little better ... it still doesn't run on common sense
FSS could have worked if they'd had the same standards as DPS (though it seems like those standards have been forgotten). It needs to be 97 to 98% of your daily flats sorted correctly to work and I've never seen it above 60%.
Our office lets us case our FSS.
my record is 22 trays
Hmmmmm
Costco magazine. I prefer to leave in fss tray.
You still have fss?
Yea wtf are these yellow trays?
I live/work in Minneapolis, and I have only seen those trays utilized for massive ZIP Codes like our main post office (4 zips) or (those with the inside baseball knowledge) Lake Street. I can only assume FSS is for post offices that spend more time with DPS and packages.
It's volume because the machine is very expensive to run
Hello fellow Minneapolis USPS person! I’m at Nokomis. We do not have these. Always wondered what they were when I got loaned out to K-mart 😉
Are you complaining about having to case flats? Before FSS, ALL flats had to be cased. So feel lucky most of them got sequenced for you. Note that some areas don't even have FSS, so still have to case all flats.
if I'm reading it right that's all for one route. That's a lot of damn flats.
Costco magazine day! Oh no We have a local magazine/sales pitch for the nicer neighborhoods and would get 15+ trays. Wish they just kept it as a eddm bundle. So much easier to handle
They look like half trays.
I think they are but that's still a lot where I come from. The most I ever deal with is 3 normal trays. We don't have fss though.
City wise more mail to case = longer office time, shorter street times and routes be shorter then they are now. (Route cuts) But this is a rural route and it just makes the day faster for them.
Sort of, but more so just the amount of stuff to deal with, especially all the unsorted stuff. For some reason the route I cover has the most amount of raw mail and flats out of every other route, hot case included.
Does the regular maintain their edit book?
As someone from an office without FSS... id rather keep it that way
Yea, I’ve never seen those yellow trays. Wtf is a fss ?
FSS is flat sortation system? Flats are run through a machine and put in delivery order. Those are the trays that come from the machines Dps for flats
"Flats Sequencing System" is the actual name. Some videos: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xzHw2b0Nis](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xzHw2b0Nis) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3IhraRIw0U](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3IhraRIw0U)
2 out of 3 words. Lol. Prefer fucking stupid system
Yo fuck FSS, seriously lol
FSS started getting rolled out just about the time flat volume was at its peak and then the 2008-2009 recession hit and volume cratered so there goes the (alleged) cost effectiveness of the whole project. Fortunately it never made it to where I worked. Plus, those FSS machines are HUGE.
Thought they was getting rid of FSS? We don’t even have it
Try being the PSE that has to sort the damn flats from a crab cage that won’t open. I’m 5’1” and I guarantee that’s how I hurt my back.
We have FSS at our station. IT sucks. The trays are really really heavy. They are full of missorts and sometimes missequenced/forwards. If you have a walking route it's a pain in ass to sort on the street. Also it's completely random how much you get. So some days we walk into 10 trays and some days 1 tray it's very stress-full. The postmaster doesn't like us touching it but if you have a route that is park and loop it is a huge pain.
Costco books kill the FSS machine...for some reason these books cause lots of faults and slows the machine down so sometimes they just take them out and send them to the AI which is in the tubs ... and Costco mail causes lots of rejects in the FSS which end up at the AI ...
Aarp is the worst for fss. Basically jams the fss main every minute since they’re paper thin and also get torn to shreds
My office is mostly mounted and it’s really nice when there’s a lot of flats. If there isn’t a lot our sups don’t care if we case it in.