At Osan Air Base post office in South Korea on Friday, Airman 1st Class Justin Mays, a postal clerk, checks mail tracking data on a laptop computer. The computer is part of a digital mail tracking system Osan has been testing, slated to enter service this summer at five U.S. Air bases around the Pacific. Mays is with the 51st Communications Squadron. (Franklin Fisher / Stars and Stripes)
OSAN AIR BASE, South Korea — Signing for mail at post offices on Pacific air bases soon will require only a digital signature, saving mail clerks hours of time and tedium.
Clerks at the Osan Air Base post office in South Korea have begun using a digital pad and pen for customers who have to sign for accountable mail, like express mail, insured items or those needing confirmation of delivery.
“A lot of people say it’s similar to receiving a package from USPS or FedEx, when they knock on your door and deliver the package to your home,” said Master Sgt. James Register, base postal superintendent with Osan’s 51st Communications Squadron.
That digital signature system and a related parcel tracking system are being tested at Osan and, he said, will be in use by mid-summer at all five of the Air Force’s major Pacific bases: Osan and Kunsan in South Korea; Yokota and Misawa on mainland Japan; and at Kadena on Okinawa.
When picking up accountable mail at the Osan post office, customers show their identification card, sign a small digital pad, and they’re on their way, Register said.
Previously, they’d sign a paper form that had to be filled out by a postal clerk, then kept on file for two years, he said.
It may be a fairly minor change for customers but “for us in the backshop, that’s where the real advantage is,” Register said. “It’s helping us out with our manning. ... It cuts down our process significantly throughout the day.”
Osan’s post office processes 1,500 or more incoming parcels daily, some 300 of which are accountable items. Outgoing parcels number about 250 daily, Register said.
Under the old system, postal airmen filled out a card for each accountable item and placed it in the customer’s mail box, a process that took about a minute per card, he said.
The digital tracking system also saves time and effort, he said. It uses handheld scanners to track how many packages are arriving and moving through the post office and stores the information on a computer system.
“No more paper,” Register said.
Osan was chosen by Pacific Air Forces to run a 120-day test on the systems, he said.
PACAF named Osan’s post office its outstanding large postal facility for 2007. Each year the post office moves about 4 million pounds of mail, Register said.
At Osan Air Base post office in South Korea on Friday, Airman 1st Class Justin Mays, a postal clerk, checks mail tracking data on a laptop computer. The computer is part of a digital mail tracking system Osan has been testing, slated to enter service this summer at five U.S. Air bases around the Pacific. Mays is with the 51st Communications Squadron. (Franklin Fisher / Stars and Stripes)
A customer signs for a parcel using a digital signature pad at the Osan Air Base post office in South Korea on Friday. (Franklin Fisher / Stars and Stripes)
