[Vocabulary] Post hub

I stumbled upon the word 'post hub'. Understanding from the context it means a distribution center for mail. Not a post office where you can go and sending letters from. Much more like a big building where a lot of mail arrives by trucks for sorting and distributing it to smaller facilities from where it is delivered to the receivers by postmen. The text I found it in is not written by a native speaker.

From dictionaries I got the meaning of hub and in the context it seams to be correct. Post is the British equivalent to mail guess.

Does a native speaker understand what is meant by 'post hub'? I found 'letter center', 'letter sorting center' and even 'mail hub'. But 'post hub' is not mentioned anywhere.

I'd call that a "sorting office".

bhaisahab said:

I'd call that a "sorting office".

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Thank you for your answer. I suggested sorting hub after looking it up. Office sounds like a little place in a city. I talk about centers where thausands and thausends of letters arrive and are sorted automatically. Still calling that a office? My friend wants to stay with post hub due to consistency of the usage of the word post in the text. Question is: is post hub understood by native speakers? Or does it sound weird?

Post hub would convey nothing to most AmE-speakers. Sorting office​ would be understood, in the context of mail.

magi_cal said:

I stumbled upon the [STRIKE]word[/STRIKE] expression 'post hub'. Understanding from the context it means a distribution center for mail. Not a post office where you can go and sending letters from. Much more like a big building where a lot of mail arrives by trucks for sorting and distributing it to smaller facilities from where it is delivered to the receivers by postmen. The text I found it [STRIKE]in[/STRIKE] [STRIKE]is[/STRIKE] was not written by a native speaker.

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Please tell us more about the text you found it in.

thausands and thausends

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Note the correct spelling of 'thousands'.

In the US, we call them distribution centers. (Formally, they're called processing and distribution centers.) We have 82 of them. You're right, they're not post offices.

Mail centre is used as well as sorting office in the UK: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Pleasant_Mail_Centre

I would not use post hub and would think that many would not be able to work out the intended meaning.

Tdol said:

Mail centre is used as well as sorting office in the UK: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Pleasant_Mail_Centre

I would not use post hub and would think that many would not be able to work out the intended meaning.

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Absolutely right.

Thank you all for your suggestions. To let you know: My friend went with distribution center.

A definite improvement. :up: