sorting office

{{Short description|Location where postal operators bring mail for sorting}}

{{Globalize|date=March 2010}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2020}}

File:General Post Office mail sorting room, Wellington c.1900s.jpg, New Zealand c.1900]]

A sorting office or processing and distribution center (P&DC; name used by the United States Postal Service (USPS){{Cite web |last=Bard |first=Jonathan F. |url=http://www.allbusiness.com/marketing/direct-marketing-direct-mail/316648-1.html |date=2005-02-01 |title=Equipment scheduling at mail processing and distribution centers |publisher=Allbusiness.com |accessdate=30 March 2010 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080311080413/http://www.allbusiness.com/marketing/direct-marketing-direct-mail/316648-1.html |archivedate=11 March 2008}}) is any location where postal operators bring mail after collection for sorting into batches for delivery to the addressee,{{Cite book |title=Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary: 3rd edition |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2008 |location=Cambridge, UK |pages=1380 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PDHCFSRmjSMC&pg=PA1380 |isbn=978-0-521-85804-5 |accessdate=2010-03-29 }} which may be a direct delivery or sent onwards to another regional or local sorting office, or to another postal administration.

Most countries have many sorting offices; the USPS has about 275. Some small territories such as Tahiti have only one.{{citation needed|date=January 2011}} Sorting vans were used at various times; the UK had sorting vans, or carriages, in their Travelling Post Offices but those services were terminated in 2004. while in the USA the Railway Mail Service used a Railway post office for sorting the mail. As of 2017, Germany has about 95–98 sorting offices across the country.{{citation needed|date=March 2017}}

The United Kingdom Royal Mail's Mount Pleasant Sorting Office was the world's largest sorting office at the beginning of the 20th century but is now only the largest one in London.{{Cite web |url=http://postalheritage.org.uk/exhibitions/onlineexhibitions/religious-associations/mount-pleasant |title=Mount Pleasant Mail Centre |publisher=British Postal Museum and Archive |accessdate=2010-03-29 }}

Military mail systems, such as the British Forces Post Office and U.S. Military Postal Service, have their own dedicated sorting offices.{{Cite web |url= http://www.bfpo.mod.uk/faqs.htm#op2 |title=Welcome to the Official British Forces Post Office Website |publisher=British Forces Post Office |accessdate=30 March 2010 }}