MAIL HANDLING

Mail handling will differ depending on the size of the organisation. Large
organisations will have a separate mail room which deals with the bulk of the mail
entering and leaving the organisation. This mail room will have staff who will be
responsible for organising the delivery of mail within the organisation as well as
mail which has to be sent outwith the organisation.

In a small organisation staff will be responsible for collecting and dealing with
the delivery and sending of their own mail.

There are 2 main types of mail

1 Incoming Mail/Outgoing Mail

2 Internal Mail

Mail may be sent or received in the following ways:

1 Post

2 Facsimile (fax)

3 E-mail

1 INCOMING/OUTGOING MAIL

Incoming mail is all mail which is delivered to the organisation. Outgoing mail is
all mail which is sent by the organisation. The majority of mail sent or received
by an organisation will be by post via the Royal Mail.

Incoming Mail will normally be delivered at the start of the day. Staff
responsible for handling mail will normally start earlier than other staff.

Outgoing mail may be sent throughout the day by individual employees in a small
organisation or by mail room staff in a large organisation.
All mail must be dealt with efficiently to ensure documents arrive on time and do
not get lost or misplaced.

1 POST (LETTERS/PARCELS)

(a) Deal with mail marked urgent first - this should be delivered as soon as
possible to the addressee.

(b) Deliver mail marked private and confidential unopened.

(c) All other mail should be opened and delivered following house procedures
(this will vary from one organisation to another).

(d) Parcels will normally be delivered at different times throughout the day.
Staff will be required to sign for a parcel on delivery. Parcels should be
sent to the addressee as soon as possible.

RECORDED DELIVERY AND REGISTERED MAIL

Important letters of parcels where proof of delivery is necessary can be dealt

with separately by the Post Office. This mail will normally contain important
documents or something of value eg references, confidential documents,
qualifications. When sending mail using this service, the sender will be given a
receipt as proof of posting. On delivery, the employee, normally the receptionist,
receiving this type of mail will have to sign for it.

The following information may be sent or received by post:

• text eg an order form to purchase paper

• written eg a letter requesting an application form
• parcels eg latest CD Rom on business software

Confidential information will normally be sent by post.

The advantages of this system is:

• it enables people who do not have access to technology to communicate

• there is no alternative for sending parcels
• confidential information, if clearly marked on the envelope would never be
seen by anyone other than the addressee
 • the post office offers several services to ensure that mail/parcels will
arrive within a specified time eg special delivery, datapost, parcel force

2 FACSIMILE (FAX)

A fax is a machine which can send and receive information 24 hours a day. This
form of communication uses a telephone network to transfer information.
Nowadays all employees in an organisation will have access to a fax machine
within their work area, department or they may have this facility on their
computer terminal.

The following information may be sent or received by fax:

• text eg letters confirming hotel/travel bookings

• written eg informal note changing the time of a meeting
• pictures/graphics eg plans for the new layout of an office

Confidential information will not normally be sent by fax.

The advantages of this system is:

• that any type of information may be sent or received within a short period
of time - rather than using the postal system
• it eliminates time barriers, for example a fax can be sent to anywhere in
the world at any time

3 E-MAIL

E-mail is when information is sent or received from one computer terminal to

another via a telephone network.

All e-mail users must have their own e-mail address eg www.schoolname.co.uk.
Information is sent directly to the users mail box whether the computer is
switched on or off.
The following information may be sent or received by e-mail:

• text eg new health and safety procedures for the organisation

• pictures/graphics eg design for the packaging of a new product

Confidential information can be sent by e-mail.

The advantages of using e-mail is:

• it is a quick and easy method of communicating

• it costs less than sending written information by post
• it eliminates time barriers, for example an e-mail can be sent to anywhere
in the world at any time
• a user may send the same message to as many addresses as necessary eg a
sales manager could send the time of the next sales meeting to 15
representatives at the same time

2 INTERNAL MAIL

This is when mail is sent or received within an organisation. This may be within
one building or different branches of the same organisation eg Boots, Bank of
Scotland, Scottish Power.

The following information may be sent or received by internal mail:

• text eg memorandum from general manager to branch managers regarding

the new salary increases
• written eg a telephone message from the receptionist left on your desk
• pictures/graphics eg draft sales leaflet advertising new product sent to
Sales Manager from marketing department

Internal mail may be sent using e-mail, fax or delivered by hand.

The advantages of internal mail is:

• mail may be sent from one department to another at no cost and without
using the postal system
• confidential information eg staff medical details may be sent using an
internal envelope clearly marked confidential
• internal information may be sent or received quickly using electronic
methods such as e-mail or fax eg employee number required from Personnel
by Finance to enable a new employee to be paid