A prototype of the feeder table for the future MLOCR at the Toshiba factory
New equipment under Modern Post
In the Fall 2008 issue of Our Health Our Safety, we published “Health and Safety
and the Modern Post.” Since then, we’ve obtained more information about the type of equipment Canada Post
intends to purchase to carry out its “postal transformation.” A CUPW delegation also visited the Toshiba
plant in the Tokyo area to review the new mail sorting equipment. Below you’ll find a preliminary overview of
this equipment.
MLOCRs
Canada Post has awarded Toshiba a contract to design and manufacture new Multi
Line Optical Character Readers (MLOCRs).
The MLOCR will have up to 304 stackers spread out over two levels; one 50 inches
above the ground, and the other, 29 inches. Two rows of trays that can fit the different types of
lettertainers will be placed below the stackers, at 29 inches for the upper level and 16 inches for the
lower. These machines will have printers linked together by a telescopic arm located at every third row of
drawers. The TT1200-series equipment will be a different version from the TT1100 machines now in use in
Sweden. It is manufactured to Canada Post specifications. According to Toshiba, the new equipment sequences
up to 41,000 letters per hour with a reading accuracy rate of 99.9%. The first machines should be ready for
delivery to Canada Post by November.
Breaking News!
At a union-management meeting held on October 22nd, Canada Post announced that
it would only be installing 173 MLOCRs in its facilities. Therefore, the four-level BCSs will not be
introduced on the work floors.
Human Guinea Pigs?
The employer would like us to believe that these machines are ergonomically safe
despite the fact that no health and safety study was conducted. Canada Post presented CUPW with a work
simulation report claiming that the risk of ergonomicallyrelated injuries resulting from sweeping the
stackers of the BCS and MLOCR is minimal...
