College mail systems

Processing the incoming mail in colleges and universities

Large volumes of mail come into universities and colleges and and a mailrom system must therefore be able to process the incoming mail quickly and enable fast delivery or collection to avoid mountains of mail building up. The mail needs to be tracked and signed for and may need to be transported in bulk to different sites within the campus depending on its size . From there local collections are made by students and staff. Mailroom records the internal distribution of all incoming mail . On collection, a PDA records proof of delivery with the built in camera and avoiding any physical contact. This saves a lot of time trying to find out what happened to an individual parcel or mail item.

So to do this, PASS Mailroom focuses on four main problems:

1. Speed of entry and processing

2. Automated notification of mail arrival at the local collection points

3. Easy tracking of the location and history of each mail item

4. Easy updating of student and staff lists

Processing the mail

The mail is logged in with PDAs scanning barcodes or attaching new ones where necessary and at that pont the item becomes trackable through the system. There are ony two essential items of data to record - The recipients name and the item barcode.

Electronic signing:

On collection, a PDA records proof of delivery with the built in camera and avoiding any physical contact.

Tracking mail over multiple sites:

Where there are many sites on the campus the mail is first logged and then put in mailbags for onward transport in a van. At the destination the mailbag is scanned and all the mail in that bag is then recorded as being at the destination. At that point the system auto-generates emails to the students asking them to come and collect their mail from the delivery point. The tracking history oof each item is easily seen in the logs

Auto updating of student lists

The PASS college mail system adapts to the list of students regularly changes as some graduate and leave and new students arrive. The system updates the changes and new intake centrally whilst maintaining archives of previous years in case of loss or dispute over an item. Bulk entry of the annual exit and arrivals updates the database each year , synchronising with the university lists.