Thousands of letters, campus mail, magazines, boxes, poster tubes … you name it and Western’s mailroom has likely sorted and delivered them all – and that’s just today.
Bags and bags of mail await delivery across campus as Western mailroom staff member Stephen Price unfurls the retractable rollers used to slide the bags to the truck for delivery across campus, which he then used to help fellow employee Mark Scott load up the truck for the first delivery of the day.
Located on the lower west level of the Support Services Building, it’s a campus service thousands depend on and, perhaps, simply expect to happen – each and every day.
But what goes into a typical day at the university’s mailroom may surprise, and impress, you.
Beginning bright and early each day, mailroom co-ordinator Jim Brown and his staffers are in by 7 a.m. Drivers Doug Whistlecraft and Mark Scott are already on the way to the Canada Post processing plant on Highbury Avenue to pick some of the incoming mail. And we’re not talking just a couple letters.
On a typical day, the pair can bring back in the neighbourhood of 36 tubs of mail (magazines, packages, larger envelopes), equivalent to almost 9,000 pieces. On top of that, close to five trays of letter mail will also make the trip to campus. With 900 pieces per tray, that’s another 4,500 pieces of mail, for a total of 13,500 pieces of mail. And they haven’t even sorted the campus mail yet.
With close to 14 bags of campus mail each day – and approximately 175 pieces per bag – you can easily add another 2,450 pieces of mail to the morning routine. That’s more than 16,000 pieces of mail – and it’s only 9 a.m.
“When you think about it, with more than 35,000 folks on campus, we are basically a small town,” says Brown, adding in a year the mailroom can see close to six million pieces of mail. Add to that another three million pieces that leave campus for the processing plant for injection into the Canada Post delivery system.
“I don’t think people on campus are aware of the volume of mail that comes through this room each and every day.”
With three delivery runs across campus each day – to 57 different stops – Whistlecraft and Scott are off once again back to the mailroom with the campus mail they’ve picked up, then quickly take off to the processing plant again with the Canada Post pick-ups. “And we start it all over again the next day,” says Brown.
In an effort of help the mailroom become even more efficient, be sure to use the proper building codes when sending mail to campus to using campus mail. You can find the link of building names at uwo.ca/westerndir/help/buildings.html.