Postal Affairs Blog

On Friday 12/17/2010, the USPS announced they will be delaying the implementation of the eDoc penalties that could cost mailers additional money should their eDoc not be in full compliance with PostalOne! and Seamless Acceptance standards.  Here are the specific items that the USPS planned to be checking for in January:

• Invalid mail preparer/mail owner (“By/For”) information
• Errors in Customer/Supplier Agreements (CSA’s)
• Invalid Mailer IDs
• Invalid Service Type Identifiers
• Non-unique mailpiece, handling unit, or container barcodes

Read below the letter from Steve Kearney of the USPS to the Mailer’s Technical Advisory Committee:

Letter to MTAC from MTAC Co-Chair

Dear MTACers:

We are delaying Full-Service eDoc postage corrections, which we had planned to deploy on January 2, 2011, to give mailers more time to use information from a new report to help correct errors in their electronic documentation.

The new publication — PostalOne!® Full-Service Error report — allows eDoc submitters to review the quality of submissions, identify jobs with errors, and calculate the correct postage. This report also allows the eDoc submitter to request reconciliation of identified errors. 

We encourage mailers to take advantage of the reconciliation process and use the feedback to correct Full-Service eDoc issues.

In addition, enhancements to the MicroStrategy Mail Data Quality reports provide detailed information on piece counts and postage amounts for pieces that are not compliant with Full-Service requirements.

Mailers have begun using these two reports — MicroStrategy Mail Data Quality and Full-Service Error — to assess the quality of their eDoc. We are continuing to work through the MTAC 137 group to address mailers’ concerns.

Please be sure to utilize the MicroStrategy Mail Data Quality reports and the PostalOne! Full-Service Error reports. Also, tell us about any issues you have with the PostalOne! help desk, 800-522-9085.

Best regards,

Steve Kearney
MTAC Co-Chair
U.S. Postal Service

Full-Service eDoc Verification and Assessment

The November 2010 PostalOne! release will introduce a process for the evaluation of eDoc for Intelligent Mail Full-Service mailings. The process will evaluate Full-Service eDoc for:

• Invalid Mailer ID
• Invalid Service Type ID
• Incorrect By/For information
• Incorrect Customer/Supplier Agreement (CSA) information
• Non-unique barcodes

On January 2, 2011, these errors will result in the loss of Full-Service discounts. Mailers should use the feedback to correct errors found during Full-Service verification prior to implementation of the Full-Service Discount Removal on January 2, 2011. Additional information can be found on RIBBS in the PostalOne! Release 25.0 release notes.

Full-Service Feedback Webinars:

The next USPS Full-Service Feedback webinar will be broadcast on Thursday, October 28 at 3 p.m. (EDT). This webinar explains the eDoc Verification process and Mail Data Quality reports. Log in information on the Webinars is posted on RIBBS^® under Intelligent Mail Latest News.

As always, if you have questions about this information, please feel free to contact me or anyone here at Window Book.

Wallace Vingelis

Director, Postal Industry Practice

Window Book, Inc.                

Phone:  (617) 395-4569

email:    wvingelis@windowbook.com

Today’s DMM Advisory issued the following update:

IMb™ Services Update

FAST^® Release 15.0.0 will deploy on November 7, 2010. Updated FAST 15.0.0 Release Notes are available at http://ribbs.usps.gov/fast/documents/tech_guides/FASTRelease/. The key features of this release are:

• Users now have the capability to choose to receive emails for stand-alone content association.
• The FAST Web Services messaging will be updated to account for previous error messages.

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.

With the recent publication of our latest white paper - ”Intelligent Mail Full-Service:  Critical Steps to Understanding and Implementing” – we want to hear from you. 

Take this opportunity to comment, question, disagree – whatever you want – but do it here.  Reply to this blog post.  Let us know how we did. 

Wallace Vingelis

Director, Postal Industry Practice

Window Book, Inc.                

Phone:  (617) 395-4569

email:    wvingelis@windowbook.com

In our ongoing efforts to educate mailers and the postal industry as a whole about critical changes happening with the USPS, we are publishing an informative, 29-page white paper titled, “Intelligent Mail Full-Service: Critical Steps to Understanding and Implementing”.

The Postal Team here at Window Book believes that in this white paper you’ll discover:

• What’s going on in the Postal industry
• The differences between the Full-Service and Basic options
• What Full-Service will do for you (It’s not just about the discounts!)
• The 3 ways to participate in the USPS PostalOne! System  
• What steps you need to take, and in which order, to get going with IM Full-Service
• And much, much more!

Click here to download your free copy of Intelligent Mail Full-Service: Critical Steps to Understanding and Implementing.

Wallace Vingelis

Director, Postal Industry Practice

Window Book, Inc.                

Phone:  (617) 395-4569

email:    wvingelis@windowbook.com

If you need assistance with the USPS FAST system, you can submit your issue via email to FAST@usps.com.  Or, depending on the date, you can call one of the two numbers below:

• Prior to August 30, 2010 – call 1-800-522-9085
• After     August 30, 2010 – call 1-877-569-6614

** If you are having any problems with your Customer/Supplier Agreements (CSAs) – you must log these issues with the FAST Help Desk via one of the methods listed above. **

Wallace Vingelis

Director, Postal Industry Practice

Window Book, Inc.

Phone:  (617) 395-4569

email:    wvingelis@windowbook.com

The United States Postal Service^® (USPS^®) announced some modifications to the current mail verification processes during the recent Mailers Technical Advisory Committee (MTAC) meetings and in webinars presented to mailers last week. These changes to the verification processes became effective with the implementation of the Intelligent Mail^® (IM) discounts on November 29, 2009.

For the most part, the USPS will conduct mail verifications using the same procedures as in the past. For IM Full Service mailings, the USPS has introduced hand-held scanning units, called FS-IMD’s, that will be used by acceptance clerks to collect data samples from mailpieces and tags on containers and mail handling units (sack tags, tray tags, pallet placards, etc.). These scanners have been deployed only to acceptance units with high volumes of mail, so not all acceptance units will be subject to these verification changes. It has not been made clear what, if any, mail verification changes will take place at acceptance units not provided with these scanning units.

The additional scanning steps that have been added to the verification process at these acceptance units equipped with the scanners are as follows:

Clerk identifies Full Service mailing on the PostalOne! system mailing dashboard.

Clerk uses the FS-IMD device to collect the following samples:

• scans 3 container placards,
• selects 1 of the scanned containers and scans 5 handling units,
• selects 3 out of the 5 handling units and scans 30 pieces – 10 piece from each of the handling units

Along with the discounts that became effective on November 29, 22009, mailings with the following errors will be subject to loss of the IM Full Service discounts:

• No electronic documentation submitted to the PostalOne! system
• IMcb (Intelligent Mail Container Barcodes) container placards not placed outside of the container stretch-wrap
• No IMb (Intelligent Mail Barcode) on mail pieces (>3 pcs) The initial verification sample size is 30 pieces. If the clerk identifies more than 3 of the 30 pieces do not have the required IMb on the mail pieces the mailing will be disqualified for Full Service discounts (this is more than 10% error)
• No IMcb on container placards (>3) The initial sample requirement is 3 placards. If one placard is found to not have an IMcb on it then an additional 3 placards will be inspected. If more than 3 placards are missing the IMcb the mailing will be disqualified for Full Service discounts (this is more than 50% error)
• No IMtb (Intelligent Mail Tray Barcode) on handling unit label (>3) The initial sample requirement is 5 tray/sack labels. If one label is found to not have an IMtb on it then an additional 3 labels will be inspected. If more than 3 labels are missing the IMtb, the mailing will be disqualified for Full Service discounts (this is more than 37% error)

In cases where the error rate exceeds tolerances and the IM Full Service discounts are forfeited, the USPS will process postage statements for such mailings in the following manner:

• Acceptance personnel will process the electronic postage statement as submitted (discount applied)
• Acceptance personnel will then conduct a manual adjustment transaction for the loss of Full Service discount.

Other Full Service benefits, such as mail tracking or ACS corrections, may be impacted when mailings fail the IM verification, based upon the type of barcode failure. What is not so clear is what exactly those impacts are. I guess we will have to wait and see!

Other IM preparation errors, such as non-unique serial numbers in the IM barcodes, or lack of container information in FAST appointments for drop shipments, will not be subject to forfeiture of IM discounts until March 2010. The USPS will, however, be sharing feedback to the mailing industry on the quality of IM mailings so that necessary adjustments may be made prior to March 2010.

According to the USPS, internal training webinars have been conducted so that the appropriate acceptance staff will be well versed in the new procedures. Based on past experience, however, there will likely be some acceptance issues that mailers will experience. There are many elements of IM that are confusing to say the least, and the acceptance and assessment processes will be no different. One of the primary concerns of mailers is the accuracy of the existing MERLIN^® (Mail Evaluation Readability Lookup Instrument) testing equipment. The USPS has admitted that the software for the MERLIN equipment has not been updated to reflect the IM changes. As many flat-size mailers can attest, MERLIN testing for flat size mailpieces is prone to many errors, even prior to IM implementation.

For more details regarding these revised mail verification procedures, you should contact your local business mail entry unit, or refer to the USPS issued mail verification changes document on the USPS RIBBS site.

Proof of Mailing: Say Goodbye to the Red Round Stamp

As the United States Postal Service^® (USPS) and the mailing industry are busy with the integration of Intelligent Mail^® (IM), one item of particular concern to the ultimate postage payer seems to have fallen by the wayside. That item is the official proof that the mail has been accepted and paid for. For years, postage payers of bulk mailings have relied upon the red round dated stamp on the postage statements or other USPS documents as proof of mailing. That red round stamp still exists today, but be prepared for it to fade into the sunset soon.

Why is the red round stamp disappearing? It is due to the increasing use of electronic documentation (e-docs) rather than hard copy documents. With Intelligent Mail Full Service, use of e-docs is required, which will eliminate the ability for postal clerks to apply the red round stamp to hard copy postage statements. What then, is to be used to provide proof of mailing?

The USPS does provide for an electronic receipt file once postage statements have been processed through PostalOne!, however these receipts do not contain any detailed information about the mailing. These receipts can be obtained either individually or in batch mode, but in either case, it requires an active effort by the mailer or postage payer to obtain these receipt files. This does not sound like a big deal unless you are a large volume mailer, or a mail preparer who processes mail for numerous clients. This change in USPS process creates the need for a new mailers process that is not required when hard copy statements are used.

Moreover, since the receipts are not attached in any way to the postage statements  themselves, it also creates an additional process of reconciling the receipt file to the postage statements. There are USPS statement numbers, register numbers, and mailing group ID numbers on both documents for purposes of reconciliation, but this would be a manual process. Also of concern is that it is not clear how long this receipt information will remain on the PostalOne! site, so access after the fact may prove to be troublesome.

Inevitably, software developers and other mailing process suppliers will create more automated means to obtain and reconcile this information, likely even including an electronic facsimile of the old red round date stamp. However, these methods will vary depending on the supplier, so postage payers who do business with multiple mail preparers will be faced with a variety of representations of the USPS proof of mailing.

The mailing industry has been calling for the USPS to respond to this issue by asking them to provide a more automated, easy to use proof of mailing. The USPS has not been very responsive to this request, mostly because they have their hands full implementing other more critical components of IM and because their budgets do not allow for additional programming to accomplish this.

As a result, postage payers and mail preparers need to be made aware of this issue and prepare for it. You should be working with your postal contacts and mailing associations to raise the awareness of this problem with the USPS. You should also be planning for the worst-case scenario, which is that the USPS will not be able to provide an automated solution anytime soon. In this case, you need to work with your software developers to come up with some workable interim solutions. You will also need to be prepared to handle these additional processes and to educate your staff and clients as to the interim solution.

We all can agree that hard copy postal documents need to be eliminated and replaced with electronic documents. However, this should not be done at the price of creating additional work for postage payers. Only by making your voices heard through your mailing associations, and by making plans in advance of IM implementation will you make yourself prepared for this change in USPS processes.

Monica Lundquist, Postal Affairs, Window Book, Inc.

Window Book Completes FAST Web Services Testing for Mail.XML 6.0

August 25, 2009, Cambridge, MA

Window Book is pleased to announce it has completed FAST Web Services Testing and been certified for Mail.XML 6.0 including Connectivity Testing with PostalOne! and Verification Testing with FAST.  Mailers can now use Window Book’s DAT-MAIL and Post Master mailing software to submit appointments in the FAST Production environment using Mail.XML 6.0 Web Services.

FAST currently uses Mail.XML 6.0 facilitate scheduling Drop Ship Destination entry and Origin mail appointments online with the USPS^®.  FAST enables mailers to create/update/cancel appointments easily via PostalOne! System.  It is designed to help mailers save time and benefit from improved induction process and receive automatic tracking of appointments.

“Using DAT-MAIL with Mail.XML 6.0 for making FAST appointments for your drop shipping is a smart way for many mailers to use Intelligent Mail Full Service,” said Jeffery Peoples, Window Book’s CEO. 

About Window Book:

Window Book has helped clients manage their operations more profitably since 1989.  A leader in mailing and shipping software for Lettershops, Corporate Mailers, Service Bureaus, and Mail Owners.  Window Book’s best-in-class postal solutions include: Intelligent Mail Full Service, PostalOne!, eDocs, Mail.dat^®, Mail.XML, FAST, Bound Printed Matter, post-presort data management, entry planning, drop shipping, postage accounting, postal documentation & statements, meter and stamp management, Express Mail and Priority Mail Open and Distribute, New Commercial Plus rates, eVS, delivery confirmation, and manifesting shipping system.

Contact information:

Sooyoung Han

617-395-4573

Window Book, Inc.

                     Eight Tips for Implementing Intelligent Mail

Go ahead and admit it. You have been procrastinating on the whole United States Postal Service^® (USPS) Intelligent Mail^® (IM) thing, and now you are starting to panic. The November date for introduction of the IM discounts is just around the corner, and you have not even started your implementation plans.

Don’t worry, you are not alone! There are lots of people who have been putting this off, just like you. Some were skeptical about the whole thing and wanted to wait and see if it was actually going to happen. Others figured there would be lots of changes and revisions to the USPS plans, so they wanted to wait for the dust to settle a bit. And for many of you, quite frankly, IM just scares the bejezzus out of you!

Regardless of what category you fall into, you really ought to start thinking about your implementation plans for Intelligent Mail. Here are some tips for getting started:

1) Do some detailed analysis to determine which level, if any, of IM that you will be using. You will need to do this analysis to first identify whether IM will be of benefit to your organization, and if so, whether Basic Service or Full Service is right for you. The USPS does provide some on-line benefit calculators to assist in this process, but you will likely need to enlist a number of members of your team, possibly in various departments, to get a complete picture. Keep in mind that while IM is currently voluntary, that may not always be the case. There have been statements made by the USPS that the current automation discounts will in 2011 be available only for mailers using the IM barcodes.

• 2) Once you have determined which level of IM service is best for you, you will need to obtain a Mailer ID (MID), or if you use service providers, Customer Relationship ID’s (CRID). Virtually everything under IM will be transacted using the Business Customer Gateway, so you will want to access the USPS presentation on using the Business Customer Gateway if you are not already familiar with it. Once you have reviewed the presentation, you can then go online to apply for your ID’s.
• 3) Start printing the IM barcode on your mailpieces. Even if your internal systems are not yet completely set up to handle the IM transactions with the USPS, you should start printing the IMb’s on your mailpieces as soon as possible. Before you do that, however, you should have some printed samples of your mailpieces containing the IMb reviwed by your local Mailpiece Design Analyst to make sure there are no problems. This includes any sack, tray or pallet tags as well as mailpieces if you are the physical preparer of the mail.
• 4) Become familiar with Mail.dat and Mail.xml if you are not already. These are the two primary means by which electronic transactions with the USPS take place. You will need to make sure that your mailing processes are capable of producing at minimum mail.dat files, and ideally both mail.dat files and mail.xml.
• 5) Investigate your internal mailing processes, including any software or hardware, to insure that they are IM compliant. Work with your hardware and software vendors and service providers to assist you with this process. You may need to do some testing and possibly some hardware or software upgrades or replacements. If you have very sophisticated, automated mailing processes, IM integration may require some custom designed systems to insure seamless integration.
• 6) If you plan to take advantage of the free Address Correction Services (ACS^TM) in the IM Full Service Option, you should work with your database administrator, fulfillment house, or other service providers to determine how to incorporate the address corrections back into your database. ACS is much more complex under IM Full Service, and there is the potential to receive three different types of corrections, in three different formats, and at three different prices (not all ACS corrections will be free of charge).
• 7) Once you have your mailer ID, you should begin testing some transactions with the USPS using the Business Customer Gateway and the Test Environment for Mailers (TEM). This will allow you to work out any bugs in your internal systems and is also required for USPS authorization for IM Full Service. Once you have passed the TEM testing, you will be running tests in a parallel environment for a period of time until the USPS authorizes you as an IM Full Service mailer.
• If you plan on implementing the IM Full Service option, consult the USPS checklist for IM Full Service mailers. It is an exhaustive list of all the points you need to do in order to qualify for Full Service.

Intelligent Mail is indeed very complex, but it is not as scary as it seems. Take one step at a time, and you will make it through the integration process. Take advantage of the knowledge of others, such as colleagues, service providers, vendors and suppliers, USPS representatives and mailing associations. Most importantly, don’t procrastinate any longer, get started TODAY!