Patent ID: 7390986

Claim:
A method for adjusting the allocation of space within cells of a carrier structure, wherein the cells receive mail items for delivery and are arranged according to a route sequence, said method comprising: assigning at least one cell to a first delivery point, wherein the first delivery point corresponds to a delivery location in the route sequence; determining a thickness of a mail item to be sorted with the first delivery point; incrementing a first counter tracking space used in the at least one assigned cell; decrementing a second counter tracking remaining space in the at least one assigned cell; comparing the thickness with the remaining space in the at least one assigned cell and sorting the mail item to the at least one assigned cell if the thickness is less than the remaining space and diverting the mail item to an overflow cell if the thickness is greater than the remaining space; and assigning a cell adjacent to the at least one assigned cell to the first delivery point based upon a number of occurrences of overflow of the at least one assigned cell; wherein assigning the cell adjacent to the at least one assigned cell includes shifting positions of cells associated with other delivery points located at delivery locations subsequent to the first delivery point on the route sequence.