The STAT Courier manages four warehouses in Atlanta, Macon, Perry, and Tifton. The Atlanta warehouse is the only sorting facility - the others are simply dropoff and pickup locations for the courier drivers in those areas - so all items are first transferred to the Atlanta warehouse for sorting and then delivered to the appropriate branch.

The drivers' routes begin and end at their respective pickup locations each day. They start the day by loading all items for their route on their truck/van and then running the route. They deliver and pick up from each library on the route. At the end of the day, they bring all picked up items to the respective warehouse and unload the truck/van. These items are then picked up by another driver during the night and delivered to the Atlanta warehouse for sorting.

Every night, a long-haul truck takes items from the Atlanta warehouse to the Macon, Perry, and Tifton warehouses so courier drivers will have items to deliver the next day. When the truck is empty, the long-haul truck then reverses the route and picks up any items that need to go to the Atlanta warehouse for sorting. At the Atlanta warehouse the truck is unloaded.

Now the sorting begins. Warehouse staff at the Atlanta warehouse open every tote (aka, bin) and sort the items by system into new totes. The libraries that have contracted for additional branch deliveries with STAT also get sorted by branch.

The totes are then moved to a staging area.

When there are 3 or 4 totes ready, the totes are then moved to the library pickup area for the driver to pick up.

The next morning, drivers come in and load their truck/van with as many as 60 totes for the libraries on their route. The vans can only hold 60 totes due to the weight of the items. Anything more than that will cause damage to the truck/van that could be catastrophic and potentially cause an accident.

As drivers bring in items picked up from libraries that day, the same process is followed. The totes are placed in the warehouse with all incoming totes. Warehouse staff open every tote and sort the items by library system/branch. The totes are moved to a pickup area for the driver to load onto their truck/van the next morning.

If all items are not taken from the warehouse each day, the older items are brought to the front of the holding area so that they go out first. (Not using the first-in, first-out system is part of what caused the problems in November 2023 through March 2024.)

The long-haul truck is loaded for the nightly delivery, and the drivers pick up items for delivery in the morning. The process starts all over again.

Package and label books properly

Naked Books

ALL items going through courier should be in a green bag (blue for universities and ILLs for non-PINES libraries). No items should be sent without a bag or packaging of some type. “Naked” books (books without packaging) are not acceptable. Those items are pulled and sent to PINES staff for correcting. This causes a serious delay for the patron waiting on a hold and makes more work for the warehouse and PINES staff.

Incorrect label format and wrong color bag for item going to a PINES library

Make sure the label shows the courier code in the bag's window. When it doesn’t, warehouse staff must open the bag and see where the item is going, or they send it to PINES offices for correction. Both options cause delays and more work for others.

Boxes

Boxes instead of totes

Problems with stacking and organizing

If boxes must be used, they should be placed inside a tote for transporting. Boxes should not be sent without a tote unless there is no other option.

Combine items going to the same branch

If possible, put more than one item in a green bag that is going to the same library branch. This reduces the number of items the warehouse staff must sort and the number of bags the receiving library must open.

Separate items going to different branches of the same system

Items inside the green bags should be for only one library branch. For example, if a library has 4 branches and there are 4 different items, one going to each branch, there will be 4 green bags labeled individually. Even if they have the same code, they need to be separated. This helps the receiving library sort their incoming items more efficiently.