Change in Intelligent Mail Barcode Requirements for Letter-Size and Flat-Size Business Reply Mail, Courtesy Reply Mail

We recently revised the Domestic Mail Manual (DMM®) to postpone the Intelligent Mail® barcode (IMb) requirement for Qualified Business Reply Mail® (QBRM) and permit reply mail (PRM) pieces until May 2011. Current DMM standards, which we are not proposing to change, require an IMb on all BRM letters and on all PRM pieces as of May 2011.

This advance announcement is intended to provide customers with reasonable time to use up existing stock. We will be publishing a Federal Register proposed rule to require BRM flats (in addition to letters as stated above) to use an Intelligent Mail Barcode as of May 2011.  In addition, in the Federal Register proposed rule, Courtesy Reply Mail™ that does include a barcode must bear an Intelligent Mail barcode effective May 2011.

Intelligent Mail Services Update

PostalOne!^® and FAST^® Outage: PostalOne! Release 24.0 will be deployed on Saturday, March 13, 2010. The PostalOne! production system will not be available from 10:00 p.m. CT on Saturday, March 13 through Sunday, March 14, 2010, at 8:00 a.m. CT.

FAST Release 14.0 will be deployed on Sunday, March 14, 2010. FAST production will not be available from 4:00 a.m. CT through 8:00 a.m. CT on Sunday, March 14, 2010. During this period FAST Web Services, FAST online application, and the FAST Customer Supplier Agreement (CSA) module will be unavailable. 

PostalOne! Release 24.0 and FAST Release 14.0 will be deployed to the PostalOne! and FAST Test Environments for Mailers (TEM) respectively on Monday, March 15, 2010. The PostalOne! and FAST TEM environments will not be available from 4:00 a.m. through 12:00 p.m. CT during this deployment.

To learn about the changes in PostalOne!  Release 24.0, refer to the release notes posted on RIBBS® under Intelligent Mail® Services Latest News.

To learn about the changes in FAST Release 14.0, refer to the release notes posted on the FAST Website under Resources.

Guides Update: To support PostalOne! Release 24.0 on March 14, the following guides are updated and available on RIBBS under Intelligent Mail Guides & Technical Specifications:

• A Guide to Intelligent Mail for Letters and Flats
• Test Environment for Mailers (TEM) Checklist and Troubleshooting
• Postal Service Mail.dat® Technical Specification
• Postal Service Mail.XML® Technical Specification

Assistance: Please call the PostalOne! Help Desk at 1-800-522-9085 if you have any questions or problems accessing the Business Customer Gateway, your accounts, or submitting electronic documentation. The PostalOne! Help Desk is accessible from Canada at no charge.

USPS processes billionth Intelligent Mail piece

(from www.usps.com)

WASHINGTON—One hundred and nine commercial mailers can’t be wrong.

That’s the number of mostly high-volume mailers who helped the U.S. Postal Service deliver one billion pieces of mail using Full Service Intelligent Mail. The milestone mailing entered the distribution network on Dec. 4, and the actual number was confirmed earlier this week.

Since the May implementation of Intelligent Mail Full Service, 109 commercial mailers have submitted more than 11,000 electronic postage statements.

“Intelligent Mail Full Service provides commercial mailers with visibility into the status of their mail so that they can provide better service to their customers,” said Tom Day, senior vice president, Intelligent Mail and Address Quality. “When their customers call, they will have the information to respond more quickly and accurately. Intelligent Mail tracking also will help finance departments monitor and predict payments more easily. And, in this economy, this is more crucial than ever.”

Commercial customers also are experiencing the speed with which their postage statements are now being processed in the PostalOne! business mail management system. According to Day, the PostalOne! system is processing more than 90 percent of Full Service mailings in less than 10 minutes.

“We highly recommend that mailers take advantage of electronic processing of postage statements, even if they have not yet signed up for Full Service Intelligent Mail,” said Day. “It’s fast, and mailers can more easily monitor their accounts and keep track of their mailings more efficiently than with paper postage statements.”

Customers also are seeing the benefit of free Address Correction Service (ACS). More than 12 million Full Service ACS notices were provided to mailers since July.

Day credited the success of the Intelligent Mail program to the relationships the Postal Service has with its customers. He cited decisions to simplify a number of business mail acceptance processes as examples of the Postal Service responding to the needs of its customers.

For example, the Postal Service recently implemented the use of hand-held scanning for initial verifications of Full-Service mailings. The process is simple. When mailers bring in their Full Service mailings into a processing plant, postal personnel use the scanners to collect data about the quality and content of the barcodes on the mailpieces as well as on the trays, sacks, and containers. If the data collected by the scanners shows problems with the mailings, the mailer has the option of taking the mail back to rework it.

The Postal Service receives no tax dollars for operating expenses, and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations.

For more information about Intelligent Mail Services, visit ribbs.usps.gov.

Intelligent Mail Service Update

The PostalOne!^® system processes 99.49% Full-Service mailings in less than two hours: With nearly 5,000 Full-Service electronic files submitted between November 15 and November 20, 90% were processed by PostalOne! in less than 10 minutes, and 99.49% were processed in less than two hours. The remaining 0.51% that took longer than 2 hours to process was large volume mailings that are complex in nature and submitted by a limited number of mailers. The Postal Service™ continues to work with this group of mailers to improve performance issues.

Hand-Held Scanning Devices used in Full-Service Verifications: The use of hand-held scanning devices (FS-IMD) has been introduced to assist in Full-Service verifications. Based on feedback from the industry via the Mailers Technical Advisory Committee (MTAC), the Postal Service has simplified verifications to limit disqualifications of Full-Service mailings to:

• No electronic documentation
• No Intelligent Mail® barcode on containers -OR- Intelligent Mail container placards are placed inside (under) shrink wrap
• No Intelligent Mail barcode on handling units
• No Intelligent Mail barcode on mailpieces

Other error types will be documented and supplied to the mailer to help improve mailing quality and assessments for these will be deferred until March 2010. A description of the verification and acceptance procedures can be found in Changes to Acceptance Processes in Support of Full-Service Mailing on RIBBS™ under Intelligent Mail Latest News .

Millions of Mailpieces Processed with Intelligent Mail Full-Service: The Postal Service has processed over 900 million mailpieces with Intelligent Mail Full-Service. Since implementation in May 2009, Intelligent Mail Full-Service customers have submitted 10,000 electronic postage statements.

DMM Advisory – Intelligent Mail Services Update

Submitting Postage Statements between November 15 and November 29, 2009:  On November 15, the Postal Service will deploy software to support Full-Service prices.  These new prices will apply starting November 29.  Postage statements have been modified to support Full-Service and other changes. Starting November 15, the Postage Statements generated from Full-Service Electronic Mailing Information using Mail.dat, Mail.XML, or the Postal Wizard will include a line for the number of pieces claiming the Full-Service prices.  The price cell will be set to zero (0) between November 15 through November 28.

The Full-Service Intelligent Mail prices will be available on Sunday, November 29, 2009.  At this time Postage Statements generated from Full-Service Electronic Mailing Information using Mail.dat, Mail.XML, or the Postal Wizard will include the Full-Service prices for the pieces claimed using Full-Service.

Non-Full-Service mailings may be submitted using the November 2009 Postage Statements on November 15 or using the current postage statements as follows:

PS Forms 3602-R and 3602-N:  The July 19, 2009 versions may be used until January 4, 2010 when the November 29, 2009 versions must be used.

For all other postage statements, the May 11, 2009 versions may be used until January 4, 2010 when the November 29, 2009 versions must be used.

Authorized Manifest Mailing System mailers will follow the same schedule.

Plant-Verified Drop Shipment (PVDS) Mailings between November 15 and November 29, 2009:  Mailers submitting Full-Service PVDS mailings on or after November 29 can submit the electronic documentation for those mailings after November 15 in non-ready to pay status.  Mailers can only send electronic ready to pay status for Full-Service PVDS mailings on or after November 29.

November 2009  postage statements can be accessed at usps.com.  Scroll down the page to Related Links and click on Postage Statements.

Publications Update:  The following publications have been posted on RIBBS as ‘drafts’ for industry review.  Recommendations sent to imb@usps.gov and received by 5:00 PM EST on November 10 will be considered.

Test Environment for Mailers (TEM) Checklist & Troubleshooting – This document will help prepare customers to use electronic documentation to submit qualification reports and postage statements through Mail.dat and Mail.XML (commonly called eDoc) by guiding them to a test process in the Test Environment for Mailers (TEM).  Though prepared primarily for customers who wish to participate in the Intelligent Mail Full-Service option, this document also covers the preparatory steps for eDoc participation.  This document replaces the Full-Service and Electronic Documentation Checklist.

Postal Service Mail.XML Technical Specification for Postage Payment and Reporting (eDoc) – The specification was updated to correspond with Mail.XML version 7.0C.  The error codes were update and elaborations were added.

Postal Service Mail.XML Technical Specification for Appointment Scheduling (FAST^®) – This volume was updated to correct error codes and some business rules.

Postal Service Mail.XML Technical Specification for Profiles and Full Service Feedback – This document was updated to elaborate on ACS functionality.

PostalOne! Release 22.0 (November 15):  The release notes for PostalOne! Release 22.0 are posted on RIBBS>Intelligent Mail Services>Latest News>Important Links.  This release will address functionality to support the prices for Full-Service and enhanced Mail.XML^® capabilities.

Assistance: Please call the PostalOne! Help Desk at 1-800-522-9085 if you have any questions or problems accessing the Business Customer Gateway, your accounts, or submitting electronic documentation.  The PostalOne! Help Desk is accessible from Canada at no charge.

The Domestic Mail Manual (DMM^®) is available on Postal Explorer (pe.usps.com). To subscribe to the DMM Advisory, send an e-mail to dmmadvisory@usps.com. Simply indicate “subscribe” in the subject line.