Parcel Sorting Center

You may have wondered what a parcel sorting center means when you receive the tracking status “Arrived at Sorting Facility”. This is one of the most common statuses that is received by everyone who orders mails from the UPS services. Every package that is shipped through the UPS services will go through the parcel sorting center. So, what does arrival at sorting center mean and what happens at a sorting center? In case you have no answer to these questions, let us help you understand what a sorting center does and how long will out mails remain at this facility.

What Is Parcel Sorting Center?

You might have already figured out from the name itself but a parcel sorting center is responsible for having all the mails sorted. A parcel sorting center is a huge building, otherwise known as a warehouse where all the mails are stored. The general public does not have access to these warehouses as it is operated by UPS officials. Every mail that is dispatched from the local UPS facilities reaches the parcel sorting centers at one point in time to get sorted into groups.  Once the mails reach the sorting center, they are sorted into groups that are destined to different states, zip codes, and cities. Mails are sorted at the sorting facility even if the mails are traveling down a few streets. This is done to ensure that the mails are rightfully grouped so that there aren’t any issues with the zip code while dispatching mails.

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Every mail carrier facility should adhere to the rules of sorting mails so that the mails are delivered to the right destination. This systematic mode of working ensures efficient mail delivery. Most business mails are already presorted before being placed at the post office for shipping. Sometimes mails are also sorted by the post offices. However, the mails at once again sorted by the sorting facility if they are traveling a longer distance. 

Arrived at Sorting Center Meaning

This is a status that you receive when your mail is at the parcel sorting center. The “Arrived at Sorting Center” status is meant to notify you about your package reaching the facility for conducting the usual sorting procedure. Depending on the distance of the destination, the mails might cross more than a single sorting center. The mails might remain at the sorting facility for a day or two, depending on the number of mails received and once the mails are sorted, they will dispatch from the sorting facility and the tracking status will be updated to “Dispatched From Sorting Center”

What Happens at a Sorting Facility?

As you already know that the parcel sorting center’s sorts mails, let’s see how the procedure is carried out.

Sorting Mails

Bulks of mails are brought to the sorting facility from different locations through the freights. The mails are loaded onto the carts and these carts await their turn to unload the mails. After unloading the mails from the cart, the workers will organize the parcels and sort them into groups. In most cases, the mails are processed, scanned, and sorted by an automated machine. Although automated machines are most commonly used to sort mails, skilled workers also sort mail physically. 

First, the address on the mails is read carefully, and then it is placed in a particular group which is either destined to the destination city or the next parcel sorting center. If the mails are destined to a different state, then the mail ends up in the sorting center of that state. For international delivery, the mails are sorted repeatedly both in the origin and the destination country. After all the mails are sorted into groups, the bulk of mails is kept aside till the mail carrier fetches these mails and delivers them to the street addresses. 

 Fetching and Delivering Mails

After the mails are sorted, they are either taken to the next facility or head straight over to the local post office for delivery. At the post office, the mails for a particular area are scanned and loaded into a cart. These mails are then delivered by the mailman. Once the mails are placed into the vehicle, the tracking status is updated to “In Transit”. In some cases, you may or may not receive the In Transit message when your mail is out for delivery as sometimes, the mails are quickly placed into the vehicle and delivered. So, you might receive the In Transit message, and then you might directly receive Delivered. 

What to Do When the Parcel Is Sitting in a Ups Sorting Facility?

This is the most asked question by people as they are curious to know if they can help speed up the process in any way possible, but unfortunately, you cannot do anything when your mail is sitting at the UPS sorting facility. At this point, the least you can do is wait patiently for another update on the tracking tool. 

However, it might seem troublesome if the mails are at the sorting facility for way too long. Although the mails only take a day or two to be sorted, the time taken to sort mails increases if the center is busy. Some of the possible reasons could be the increase in the number of mails, the shipping service selected by the customer, or how soon the mails are placed on the freight for the next procedure. You might never know the particular reason for the delay in sorting as the customers are not informed about the backend operations. 

So, What Can You Do if the Mail Has Overstayed Its Welcome at the Sorting Center?

Well, if you are not bothered about the time taken to deliver the mail to your doorstep, then you don’t have to bother about the amount of time the mail spends at the parcel sorting center. On the other hand, if you are in a hurry and the tracking status has not been updated for quite a few weeks, then it’s about time you take some action. At this point, you need to contact the carrier service which is responsible for handling your mails. Now, it is not easy to get in touch with these sorting facilities as these are huge warehouses and it is difficult to locate a lost item. Although it might sound impossible to locate your item, you should give it a try as it might work in your favor. 

The UPS Sorting Facilities

As mentioned already, the UPS has a vast network of hubs and sorting facilities that are responsible for handling mails and making it easy for the freight to carry mails. There are a total of 12 UPS hubs located across the world out of which 5 are in the USA. Here is a breakdown of all the service hubs:

• Headquarters of the UPS facility: Louisville, Kentucky, USA
• USA hubs/sorting centers: Philadelphia, Dallas, Ontario, and Rockford
• Canada: Ontario
• Europe: Cologne and Bonn in Germany
• Asia Pacific regions: Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Hong Kong
• Latin America and Caribbean: Miami

All these major hubs coordinate to move the mails to and fro from each city to its rightful destination. Mails are transferred to the destination through the bus, railway, or airway. In most cases, if the distance of the destination is more than 200 miles, then the mails are dispatched through the air, otherwise, trucks and rails are one way to go.  

What is UPS WorldPort?

Anyone who is living in Louisville would have heard of UPS headquarters which is also termed as the WorldPort, i.e., a shipping giant which truly deserves the title of the largest sorting facility in the entire world. This 5.3 million square foot processing and sorting facility works every single moment of the day and sorts more than 400, 000 packages per hour. The amount of tasks executed every single second is astounding. 

Working of UPS WorldPort

UPS is the largest shipping facility in terms of revenue generated. The UPS WorldPort parcel sorting center was opened 15 years ago aimed at expanding the freight business. UPS decided to expand its headquarters and this plan was completed in 2006. As of now, this facility has almost 130 aircraft, 70 aircraft docks, and over 250 kilometers of conveyor belts which are used to receive mails from over 200 countries worldwide. With such a huge fleet of aircraft, this company is about to become the largest aircraft operator in the world. 

The inside view of the UPS WorldPort is beyond imagination. This string facility uses 3 to 4 runways of the Louisville Internation airport as a single runway will not be able to handle the incoming mail carrier flights. According to the facility, there is a flight landing at the facility every 10 minutes. And during busy days, i.e., holiday seasons, the flow of incoming flights is increased up to 3 times.

Most of the planes land during the night and the planes are parked neatly to unload the items. Items are placed on the conveyor belts in a proper sequence; the first one for small mails; the second for large mails and the third one for mails with irregular shape and size. The sensors placed above the belts scan the labels on the packages which are used to process the information displayed on the labels. After the scanning and processing are complete, the sorted mails are placed onto the docks for loading. 

Interesting Facts About the UPS WorldPort

• UPS WorldPort has a size of 90 football fields
• More than 115 packages are scanned every second
• In a single day, more than 20 million packages are delivered per day
• According to the statements made by the company, they can reach out to almost 80% of the population in just 2 days
• In another statement, the UPS spokesperson mentioned that the sorted items scanned by the automated machines are 99.99% accurate.

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USPS Tracking Status

Understanding the package statuses has never been easier, considering the complexity of the tracking updates. And if you are using UPS for the first time, then figuring out what every tracking update means will leave you confused. Here are some of the most common tracking updates along with their meanings:

Package Information Received

This is possibly the first tracking update you get when you ship with the UPS services. With this tracking status, UPS is notifying you that they have received the package and have entered its information into their database. Some of the possible statuses you might get along with this are:

• Electronic shipment Information Received
• Order information received

Package In Transit

Now, this status has many meanings, but the important part is that the mails are placed on freight and they are on the way. But where are the mails headed to? Well, it might go to other centers for sorting or scanning, or they might be on their way to the local post office, or they might be on their way to be delivered to you. 

In Transit – Arrived at Waypoint

A waypoint is a place where the mails are sorted to be loaded onto a freight and taken to the next checkpoint. Waypoints are also known as parcel sorting centers and by now, you clearly understand what a sorting facility is. This status is soon followed by In Transit – Departed at Waypoint. There are other ways this message is conveyed, such as:

• Arrived at UPS Destination sort Facility
• Arrived at UPS Facility
• Package arrived at the international carrier

Arrived at Customs

When the package reaches the international customs to complete the scanning and processing information. You will receive a notification when the package completes the customs process and also if additional information is requested. 

UPS Customer Service

Shipping mails with UPS is relatively easy when compared to other services. However, at times due to the overwhelming amount of information you come across, it becomes difficult to figure out the solutions for any problems. UPS is always there to help you with their team of experienced customer support professionals. You can find all kinds of information that you are looking for on the official ups customer service page. Some of the ways that you can request support are:

• Phone: you can call customer service from Sun-Sat 6:00 a.m. to 1:00 a.m. EST Call 1-800-742-5877. For international shipping, you can place a call on 1-800-782-7892, the line is open 24 x 7. For technical support, make a call on Weekdays from 7:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. EST and on the weekends from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. EST
• Email: Send an email to ups customer service on their official page.
• Virtual Assistant: You can also get quick help from UPS virtual assistant chatbot

Conclusion

The UPS parcel sorting center is a warehouse that carefully examines the address labels on the mails and sorts them in order. All the sorted items are placed into certain categories. The grouped items are destined based on the zip codes, cities, or states. Finally, when the sorting procedure is complete, the mails move to the next checkpoint which can be the next sorting facility or the post office(for dispatching mails).

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Frequently Asked Questions(FAQ’s)