Postal Affairs Blog

Priority Mail Open and Distribute Made Easy

Back when I was in the printing business, I used to cringe whenever a client brought up the possibility of using Priority Mail Drop Shipping for distribution of their mail. As printing companies, we did not often recommend this delivery option to clients because it was, quite frankly, a real pain to implement. Luckily, that is no longer the case, due to true innovations in mailing and shipping software. For some mailers, Priority Mail Drop Shipping is a well-kept secret that they are not aware of, and as a result they are missing out on some great opportunities to improve delivery and reduce costs.

For those of you not familiar with this service, it is technically termed Priority Mail Open and Distribute (PMOD) by the United States Postal Service^® (USPS). It is a method of drop shipping mail to additional postal entry points using Priority Mail as the shipping method rather than more traditional methods such as truckload, less-than-load (LTL) or air freight. The same service is available using Express Mail Open and Distribute (EMOD), although it is more expensive due to the quicker delivery time (next day service).

Regardless of which level of service is used, Open and Distribute is a pretty nifty way to drop ship to entry points with smaller volumes of mail which make the more traditional shipping methods cost prohibitive. It works by entering the mailpieces at their normal postage prices (e.g. Periodicals, Standard, etc.) and then placing those trays or sacks of mail into Priority Mail sacks for delivery to the postal entry point. By use of special sack tags, these Priority Mail sacks are identified to the USPS as containing drop shipped mail, which the USPS then opens and distributes the sacks inside as they would normally be routed. The Priority Mail postage is paid on the weight of the mail inside the PM sack (and tare weight of the sacks/trays inside the PM sack), and essentially replaces the shipping charges that would have been charged by freight carriers if the more traditional shipping methods had been used.

In years past, this process was a real pain because this mail had to be manually separated, manually tagged with the PMOD tags, and postage statements were manually generated. Now, however, there are software solutions that allow these functions to be automated to the point that it is much more time and cost effective to use PMOD.

How can mailers take advantage of PMOD? There are three major benefits to using PMOD:

1) If you are experiencing delivery delays to remote or distant locations (e.g. Alaska, Hawaii, Guam, Puerto Rico), or any location for that matter, PMOD can be a great way to shorten the delivery time. Priority Mail has delivery standards of 2-3 days, so the mail gets entered into the postal entry points much more quickly than if the mail was locally entered at the printing plant or letter shop.

• 2) You can take advantage of drop ship discounts even for entry points with low mailing densities, such as Butte, MT or Fargo, ND.
• 3) You can mail at the less expensive Standard rates, but get very close to First-Class delivery standards if you use PMOD to drop ship to additional entry points.

Your mailings can be easily analyzed to determine whether PMOD will be beneficial for you to use. Using a mail.dat file, you can process this file through post-presort mail.dat management software in a “quick plan” mode. This will allow you to see all the possible drop ship entry points for which your mailing would qualify. You can then go a step further by applying freight charges to the entry points with significant mail volumes. Any entry points with small volumes can then be exported into PMOD software to determine the estimated cost of PMOD shipping.

If you do not have post-presort mail.dat management software, you can ask your printer/mailer to perform these analyses for you, or you can contact a provider of this type of software to request a demo or trial of the software. If you have been hesitant to use PMOD in the past due to implementation concerns, or if you are completely new to PMOD, you owe it to yourself and your company to check out the possibilities of this great USPS program.

Sen. Carper Introduces Bill To Ease Financial Strain On The Post Office.

Sen. Carper hopes this bill will be enacted into law before Congress adjourns in August.

WASHINGTON – Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.) today introduced legislation to help address the dire financial situation facing the United States Postal Service.

Sen. Carper, as chairman of the Senate subcommittee that oversees the postal service, has been closely monitoring its deteriorating financial condition and has been seeking way to keep the mail flowing.

“The economic slowdown and the ever-growing electronic diversion of the mail have put a serious strain on our nation’s Postal Service,” said Sen. Carper. “We in Congress must provide some way to help preserve the vital services post offices provide for American families and businesses.”

Recently, Postmaster General Jack Potter and Postal Service Board of Governors Chairman Carolyn Gallagher notified Congress and officials at the Treasury Department that the Postal Service will not make its $5.4 billion retiree health, pre-funding payment by September 30, as required by law.

That is why Sen. Carper introduced his “Postal Service Retiree Health Benefits Funding Reform Act of 2009″ to restructure the postal service’s retiree health payment schedule to produce significant cost savings over the next several years. The Carper bill also gives the postal service more borrowing authority to meet its financial obligations and get through this current fiscal year and next.

“This bill will put the Postal Service on more sound financial footing as we approach the crucial holiday shopping season. I am confident that with the changes called for in my bill, the Postal Service can continue to provide the quality service we all depend on,” said Sen. Carper. “But this bill is not a silver bullet that will fix everything wrong with the Postal Service. Its management also needs to find ways to attract new business and further streamline operations. And, Congress and postal employees need to continue to work closely with management to keep the Postal Service running smoothly and reliably.”

The Postal Service expects mail volume to be roughly 175 billion pieces this fiscal year, a decline of 38 billion pieces since 2007. The Postal Service is also projecting a loss of $7.1 billion in FY2009 despite its success in working toward $6.1 billion in cost cutting in one year.

Sen. Carper hopes this bill will be enacted into law before Congress adjourns in August.

Please give Senator Tom Carper your complete support from WindowBook Inc and National Alliance of Standard Mailers & Logistics (NASML).

Contact: (202) 224-2441  Fax: (202) 228-2190

E-mail http://carper.senate.gov/contact

Are you trying to work with eDocs, PostalOne!, Mail.dat or Mail.XML files, Do you need to improve your method of accounting of permits, postage and and meters? Are you needing educational information on USPS TEM, Electronic Mail Acceptance and Entry? Have you ever tried using Priority Mail Open Distribute (PMOD) to make an “In-Home-Date” and reduce postage costs? Did you know you don’t have to pay up front postage for Return Merchandise Labels, you can use a permit! Did you know there is International Commercial USPS Rates – Pricing available. Are you considering switching from optional procedures to Manifest Mailing? PUB 401? Are you trying to work with eDocs, PostalOne!, Mail.dat or Mail.XML files? Do you need to improve your method of accounting of permits,  Would you like to know how to shave hours of your day with self populating mailing and financial reports?

Window Book is hosting a ‘Software User Seminar’ on August 4-5, 2009 where you can meet our staff in person and get expert tips on how to better use your program.

Please join us to discover all the new features available for your Window Book software.

Sending eDocs via PostalOne! Mail.dat or Mail.XML
FAST Web Services and Mail.XML for drop shipping
Generating reports to track postage, permits, clients & jobs
Electronic Round Date Grp. ID Stamp (Fall 2009)
How to optimize Freight Planning and Drop Shipping
Priority Mail Open and Distribute Cost/Savings Analysis

Register for your ‘Software User Seminar’ hosted by Window Book, Inc.
Learn all the updated and new software functionalities
Work towards your certificate as a program user
Learn about new service offerings: Postal Concierge & Mailing Services
Day One Everything and anything new – improved – underutilized with DAT-MAIL^TM, PPP^TM and other software
Day Two Advanced users and One-on-one breakouts

When: Tuesday, August 4th, 2009, 8am-5pm
           Wednesday, August 5th, 2009, 9am-1pm
Where: Holiday Inn Willowbrook, Chicago, IL
Registration fee: $60.00 per person / Discounted rate of $50 per person for 3 or more attendees same company
Register now

Hotel Information:
Holiday Inn Chicago-Willowbrook-Hinsdale
7800 South Kingery Hwy, Willowbrook, IL 60527
ph: 630-325-6400 | Fax: 630-325-2362
Rates: $98.00 SIG/$109.00 DBL
Group Code: WindowBook
Deadline for Registration: Thu, 7/30/09

Note:
1. You will receive an Attendance Certificate for your participation. Hour(s) will be credited towards becoming a Certified WBI Software User. 2. Registration Fee is non-refundable but may be applied towards future seminars. This is your great opportunity to sharpen your skills and identify your specific needs for your company! Please email us at mailto:postalspecialist@windowbook.com?subject=Join%20Us%20at%20the%20Window%20Book%20Software%20User%20Seminar if you have any questions.

Sincerely,

 

J. Jeffery Peoples
CEO & Founder
Window Book, Inc.

                           Mail.XML vs. Mail.dat

Most of us in the mailing industry have become accustomed to the word “mail.dat” and have a good understanding of what it is and the benefits of using it. For those of you still not familiar with the term mail.dat, it is a mailing industry standard specification (established and maintained by IDEAlliance) for a set of relational database files. These files are generated at the time that the mailing list is sorted through postal presort software, or when the mailpieces are sorted on Multi-Line Optical Character Reader (MLOCR) sorters. The set of files together represent just about all the specifics about a mailing with the exception of the mailing names and addresses. These files are used by the mailing industry and the United States Postal Service^® (USPS) to share information and facilitate electronic transactions.

Just when we thought we had become pretty smart about mail.dat, along comes Mail.XML. Unless you are a real techie, mail.xml probably seems like a word from a foreign language. Actually, mail.xml is fairly simple, and it represents a really cool method to transmit mailing information. But what does it mean for the average mailer?

As background, Mail.XML is a newer mailing industry standard specification (again established and maintained by IDEAlliance) for informational transmissions. Mail.dat is quite robust and can contain huge amounts of information. This is very beneficial, except when you only need portions of the information that resides in mail.dat files. In these cases, it can be time consuming and a strain on transmission and storage resources to send entire Mail.dat files back and forth between the involved participants in the mailings.

To help understand the difference between Mail.dat and Mail.XML, think of it in terms of the Mail.dat file being the encyclopedia of a Mail.XML given mailing. Then think of Mail.XML being the telegram that you send to someone describing a portion of the encyclopedia. If your recipient only needs a small segment of information, it is much easier (for both of you!) to send them a short telegram than to send them an entire encyclopedia. That is essentially how Mail.XML works in relationship to mail.dat.

One of the ways that Mail.XML will be used is during transactions with the USPS. For example, if you use PostalOne! to transact business with the USPS, you will first upload a mail.dat file for the mailing as a “planned” mailing. Once all the final attributes of the mailing have been determined and all adjustments made to the Mail.dat file, you need transmit only Mail.XML “telegrams” to the USPS to update the mail.dat file that you previously uploaded. This eliminates the need to re-upload an entire mail.dat file every time a change is made or a new transaction required. This allows you to pay postage, make drop ship appointments, and a variety of other transactions using much smaller chunks of data.

Mail.dat is not going away anytime soon, and will certainly not be replaced by mail.xml. Mail.XML is just a very useful tool for use in transmitting smaller chunks of a mail.dat file. You’ll be hearing lots more about Mail.XML, particularly as the USPS proceeds with the integration of Intelligent Mail^®.

Monica Lundquist, Postal Affairs, Window Book, Inc.

Mail.XML A Present and Future Tool

Mail.XML is a mailing industry standard specification for light-weight transactions between participants in the mailing process. The Mail.XML specification, as with the mail.dat specification, was established and is maintained by IDEAlliance.

Mail.dat is the powerful foundation for communicating data regarding mailings. It is a suite of relational database files which contain virtually every piece of data about a mailing except for the actual name and address records.

Mail.XML is a communications tool which allows for participants in the mailing process to communicate changes and updates to the Mail.dat file in a fast, efficient manner which is almost real-time. There are numerous transactions that occur during the course of the mailing process which do not require transmission of the entire Mail.dat database. Using Mail.XML for these lighter-weight transactions reduces manual data entry processes and makes these transactions quicker and more efficient.

Mail.dat stores complete information about a mailing as a database.  Prior to Mail.XML, the complete dataset was interchanged between the list house, printer/manufacturer, trucking company and USPS.

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Mail.dat will not be replaced by Mail.XML.  Mail.XML provides an alternative to exchanging the entire Mail.dat database.  Mail.XML adds a new light-weight transaction messaging mechanism between mail owner, list house, manufacturer/printer, logistics company and the USPS.

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The United States Postal Service^® (USPS) continues to move toward a forms-based transaction protocol, to which Mail.XML lends itself beautifully. For example, transmitting postage statements to the USPS for postage payment is a forms-based transaction, for which Mail.XML may be used. Making drop ship appointments through the USPS FAST system is another example.

Mail.dat is not going away and will not be replaced with Mail.XML. Rather, Mail.XML is a powerful tool to make mailing transaction communications much quicker and easier. Window Book offers numerous world-class Mail.XML solutions for communications between mail owners, mail preparers, the USPS and other suppliers. Come join us and tap into the future today!

 

ACS Full Service: Will it REALLY work?

Some recent mailing industry discussions have involved all the uncertainties regarding Address Change Service (ACS^TM) services under Intelligent Mail^®. There is still a lot of confusion and miscommunication surrounding this topic. However, one element which is very fundamental is not being discussed, and unfortunately it could be a real show-stopper.

Many mailers do not realize that the USPS handles address corrections differently for the various processing categories of mail. One of the methods the USPS utilizes is a system called Postal Automated Redirection System (PARS), which reads the address during postal processing, bounces it against the USPS Change of Address (COA) database, and then automatically applies the new address and forwards the mail (depending on the class of mail and service endorsements) to the new address. The processing equipment used to process this mail is predominantly for letter size mail.

For mail that is not forwarded, the USPS uses a different method. In these cases, the address corrections are triggered at the mail delivery carrier level. When the carrier determines that the recipient is no longer at the address on the mailpiece, or that the mailpiece is otherwise undeliverable as addressed, the piece is sent to a Computerized Forwarding System (CFS) center for further processing. The CFS sites are where the ACS notices are generated. Before this is done, however, the mail carrier manually crosses out the barcode on the mailpiece so that the piece does not get re-directed to the old or bad address. Therein lies the problem. If the Intelligent Mail barcode (IMb) is obliterated by the mail carrier, it will not be able to be scanned at the CFS centers, which means that the USPS will not be able to process the address corrections in the Intelligent Mail environment.

Theoretically, it should be as simple as training all the mail carriers to stop crossing out the barcodes on this Undeliverable As Addressed (UAA) mail. However, since there are tens of thousands of mail carriers across the country, the likelihood of this training getting accomplished quickly and thoroughly is not very high. This is particularly true given the financial straits of the USPS.

The November implementation date for the Intelligent Mail postage discounts is not all that far away. This problem is not being actively discussed, so how can mailers be assured that they will be receiving their address corrections when they convert to Intelligent Mail? This is particularly concerning for Periodicals mailers, who are required to receive and pay for address corrections through the USPS. Many Periodicals mailers have adopted the ACS service over the years as a method of reducing the cost of the address corrections. Since these mailers are already paying for address corrections through the USPS, very few utilize other methods of obtaining address corrections, such as NCOA^Link®, because of the additional costs. The free ACS service as part of Intelligent Mail Full Service is particularly attractive for these Periodicals mailers since they can now obtain these corrections free of charge, whereas in the past there was a charge per correction. Getting corrections for free, however, is no deal if the process results in not being able to get any address corrections at all.

An alternative is for mailers to continue to print the ACS participant codes and keylines on the mailpieces. This would allow the USPS to access this human readable data in cases where the IMb is obliterated or otherwise unreadable. However, this does not address the issue of the type of service requested by the mailer. Traditionally this would be indicated in the type of ancillary endorsement printed on the mailpiece (e.g. Change Service Requested). Under Intelligent Mail, however, the only endorsement permitted is Electronic Service Requested, so that would not be of any help in cases where the IMb is not readable. Also at issue is how these address corrections would be charged. Theoretically if the IMb is unreadable, the ACS notices would no longer be free but would rather be charged at traditional rates. However, if the USPS causes the barcodes to be unreadable, how will that be charged?

Mailers who plan to use Full Service ACS should be working with their mailing associations so that this concern can be communicated to the USPS. These mailers should also be working with their fulfillment suppliers or database managers to be actively participating in testing for the Full Service ACS program so that any potential problems can be identified quickly.

Everyone in the mailing industry wants Intelligent Mail to be successful, and only through timely communication can potential problems be identified and corrected quickly.

Monica Lundquist

Postal Affairs Manager

Window Book, Inc.

Summary:

Window Book releases its mailing software, DAT-MAIL, Post Master, Complete Postal Library, and Postal Business Companion, with the new July 19^th 2009 USPS High Density Standard Mail Flats prices.

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Window Book’s DAT-MAIL is updated with new USPS High Density Standard Mail Flats Prices

Window Book releases its mailing software, DAT-MAIL, Post Master, Complete Postal Library, and Postal Business Companion, with the new July 19^th 2009 USPS High Density Standard Mail Flats prices.

Effective July 19 pricing for Standard Mail (Regular and Nonprofit) Commercial Flats will be decreased by 0.1¢ per-piece.  For Flats weighing less than 3.3 oz, the per-piece rates are slightly lower.  For Flats greater than 3.3 oz, the per-piece rates are higher, but the per-pound rates are lower. 

This new incentive will allow High Density Flats mailers save on their mailing expenses especially during this tough economy.  For example, a mailing job of 1,000 pieces of flats which weigh .4lb/piece will now only cost $336.60 instead of $345.60.  For high volume mailers, the reduced rates will definitely yield a significant sum of savings.

“Window Book has built a set of technologies that enables mailers to update their software in advance of any postal rate change and allow them to see the difference in rates just by changing the date of mailing in the software. This enables companies to be prepared in advance and know exactly what is coming. Users can then tell their customers in advance. We are pleased to be able to offer efficient and fast rate-updates in advance of the actual effective dates for our clients,” said Jeffery Peoples, Window Book’s CEO.

Subject:  Intelligent Mail® Barcode Readability Tolerances

The details of the revised procedure will appear in this Friday’s (July 10) DMM Advisory: 

From now through November 28, 2009 the following readability thresholds for Intelligent Mail barcodes applied to Letter and Flat automation-price pieces are in effect:

a.      A mailing with an Intelligent Mail barcode readability verification result of 70 percent or higher passes verification.

b.      A mailing with an Intelligent Mail barcode readability verification result of below 70 percent will have additional postage calculated based on 100 percent of the automation-price pieces in the mailing.

The revised threshold is in effect now, but in the interest of completeness and accuracy, please direct your members to Friday’s (07-10-09) DMM Advisory.

There are a few Address Change Service (ACS) details to be resolved this week to determine how address correction information is disseminated and priced for Full Service mailpieces that have unreadable barcodes. 

A key element in this agreement was the desire by both the Postal Service and the mailing industry to get people to test and to use the Intelligent Mail barcode immediately!  Please remind your members that they should test and use the Intelligent Mail barcode now even if they are still working toward Full Service implementation.

Also please remind your members that they have two options to engage in using Intelligent Mail barcodes, Basic Service as well as Full Service.  They can work with their local Business Mail Acceptance units and Mailpiece Design Analysts to ensure their barcodes meet specifications.  Please encourage them to test their Intelligent Mail pieces before their live production runs.

USPS NPF offices have CANCELLED the Intelligent Mail University for Columbus OH, on Thursday, July 9, 2009. USPS NPF offices plan to reschedule the same event and same location for a date in October, 2009, details will be forthcoming.

The Intelligent Mail University scheduled for Fort Worth, TX, on Thursday, July 16, 2009 will continue as planned. For additional information and to register: http://imb.npf.org/register.aspx