Certain terms may be unfamiliar to consumers. Not exactly the remit of Albert Einstein but some of them might as well be mathematical equations to the British public, so here goes.

Thank you to the many postal workers who helped compile this list. It is not a complete list (by any means) and will be added to from time to time. They may in some cases be regional specific (ie slang) but to cover the main ones:

552 - an overtime docket

739 Card . Sorry you were Out card. Normally the customer cant be bothered to get out of bed

A.G. Associate Grade.  Part time postal worker.

Alt  A trolley but this one has the floor attached to a spring so as you unload it , the floor raises up  (except they're normally broken)

APC's Automated Processing Centres

CDO - City Delivery Office

CFC - culler, facer, canceller machine, a machine that seperates machinable mail, cancels the stamp and faces it up for the next machine, usually 5 staff per cfc 

Collection Letters/Packets/Flats - mail retrieved from postbox and post office collections, postage paid by stamps

DOM Delivery Office Manager

Docket   Overtime

Door Stepping . When an item is left on a Door step because it may be too big to fit through a standard letter box. But this never happens - we always take it back to the office and leave a 739 card.

DSA - downstream access mail. mail that comes from our competitiors and we sort, companies like TNT, UK Mail, Lynx

D2D . Door to Door (or 'junk mail') items

FCT - facer,canceller table, a machine where people segregate rejects from the CFC's and feed them into a stamp cancelling machine, around 10-15 staff per fsm

Flat - an A4 sized letter or anything between C5 and A4

Floater  A person who's job is to cover sickness/holiday duties

FSM - Flat sorting machine, a machine that sorts letter bigger than C5 up to phone book size, usually 10 staff per fsm

HCT . High Capacity Trolley

Koffin Like a coffin-ish shaped trolley

Locker . Room where Registered items are signed off

LSM - letter sorting machine, a machine that sorts letters C5 and under, usually 2 staff per lsm

M2 & M3 - mailsort 2 and 3. different classes of mail, mainly used for junkmail

Mail Rail - The former underground mini railway between Paddington & Whitechapel used for transporting parcels.

Mailsort . Items that are pre-paid such as Sky Magazine. Mail Sort 1 2 and 3. Different delivery details.

MCM - mail centre manager

Meter - business mail with postage paid from a meter machine and meter stamped

MDEC - manual data entry centre/clerk. Where postcodes are manually added to letters that the machines cannot decipher automatically or where handwriting can't be read by automatic sorting equipment. Suffixes such as MDEC'4' denote where the machine is - i.e. Stoke-On-Trent.

Miss-sorts . Where an item has been incorrectly bundled on a delivery. (ie designated for 1 Manor Court when it should be delivered to 1 Manor Road).

Nugget - new employee (may be a regional term) 

OMV   Official motor vehicle (ie post van, lorry etc) 

O.P.G  Operational post grade (a postman/woman!)

Packet - parcels and large items

PCM - production control manager

Postie Affectionate, although non-gender specific name for a Postwoman or Postman and a whole lot better than POSTPERSON!

PE  Postal executive

PPI - postage paid impression (pre-paid envelope style)

RLE  Registered letter enclosure

S.A. Sheduled Attendence.  Contracted Overtime or Part-timer that only works Saturdays 

SDD .. Single Day Delivery.

Specials (SD's)  Special delivery items which are insured and guaranteed (in theory) to be delivered by either 9am or 1pm

Stirs .. Registered Letteres

SWW - Shorter working week

TPO - Travelling Post Office. Refers to one or more carriages on a moving train used for sorting letters and packages.

WAM - work area manager

WLA - workload assesment, WLA workstations have guns to zap in traffic volumes into mail centres and processed within

WTLL - worktime listening and learning session , weekly half hour sessions on various topics

York  A large upright trolley, used for moving sacks and trays of mail. So named because York was the first place to use them.