Open, sort, and distribute incoming mail.

“Open, sort, and distribute incoming mail.” is a supplemental task performed by Couriers and Messengers. Among the occupation's 17 rated tasks, workers place it 2nd by importance (#16 most important).

This is a single occupation-specific task statement from O*NET. The figures below describe how central the task is to the job and what independent studies measure about AI and this kind of work — not a prediction that the task will be automated.

AI exposure

The OpenAI / Eloundou “GPTs are GPTs” study rates this task E0. No direct exposure — current language models give little or no time savings on this task.

Exposure measures whether a model could meaningfully speed the task up — it is an estimate of overlap with model capabilities, not a measure of whether the work will be done by software. The study's intermediate score (β) for this task is 0.00. Automation potential label: T1.

Other tasks in this occupation

• Deliver and pick up medical records, lab specimens, and medications to and from hospitals and other medical facilities. · importance 4.7
• Obtain signatures and payments, or arrange for recipients to make payments. · importance 4.6
• Record information, such as items received and delivered and recipients' responses to messages. · importance 4.5
• Receive messages or materials to be delivered, and information on recipients, such as names, addresses, telephone numbers, and delivery instructions, communicated via telephone, two-way radio, or in person. · importance 4.5
• Load vehicles with listed goods, ensuring goods are loaded correctly and taking precautions with hazardous goods. · importance 4.5
• Walk, ride bicycles, drive vehicles, or use public conveyances to reach destinations to deliver messages or materials. · importance 4.4
• Sort items to be delivered according to the delivery route. · importance 4.4
• Deliver messages and items, such as newspapers, documents, and packages, between establishment departments and to other establishments and private homes. · importance 4.3
• Unload and sort items collected along delivery routes. · importance 4.3
• Plan and follow the most efficient routes for delivering goods. · importance 4.2
• Check with home offices after completed deliveries to confirm deliveries and collections and to receive instructions for other deliveries. · importance 4.2
• Collect, seal, and stamp outgoing mail, using postage meters and envelope sealers. · importance 4.0
• Use telephone to deliver verbal messages. · importance 4.0
• Perform general office or clerical work, such as filing materials, operating duplicating machines, or running errands. · importance 3.9

See all tasks on the Couriers and Messengers page.

Sources for this page

Every figure above traces to a named public dataset and the exact release below — not hand-written opinion. See the full methodology for what each measure does and does not mean.

• O*NET 30.3 U.S. Department of Labor / National Center for O*NET Development
• “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130 OpenAI / academic

Data compiled June 2, 2026. Figures are estimates, not advice.

@misc{singulariki-task-7022,
  title  = {Open, sort, and distribute incoming mail.},
  author = {{Singulariki}},
  year   = {2026},
  note   = {O*NET 30.3; “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130. Accessed June 7, 2026},
  url    = {https://singulariki.com/tasks/task-7022}
}