intelligent mail barcode
USPS eases on deadline of May 2011 for new barcode
In a shocking announcement the USPS is “relaxing” their deadline of May 2011 to adhere to the use of the IMB to attain automation discount; and in other news the sky is still blue.
Below is the official excerpt from the DMM Advisory: 
Postal Service Relaxes Upcoming Requirements for Automation Prices
Recognizing ongoing concerns about mailers’ readiness for broader adoption of the Intelligent Mail barcode (IMb®), the USPS® has decided that automation discounts for mail with POSTNET barcodes will continue to be offered beyond May 2011.
Today’s announcement, made following consultation with key industry leaders, means that mailers also may continue to use the POSTNET barcode for reply mail (such as Business Reply Mail (BRM), QBRM and Permit Reply Mail) and PLANET Code® for Confirm® Service.
The relaxing of requirements beyond the planned May POSTNET retirement timeframe allows for an easier transition to the full use of the IMb while continuing to receive automation discounts.
The value of the IMb is a proven technological advantage with more than 41 billion pieces of IMb-enabled mail processed by the USPS. As more Industry leaders continue to embrace the IMb, the Postal Service is committed to enhancing the benefits of Intelligent Mail Services.
The Intelligent Mail Barcode For Dummies
This is a sad day for me in some ways as it will be my last blog post for Going Postal and fmi as I am leaving the company having accepted a position at another.
I wanted this last post to be somewhat of a handoff as I pass the proverbial baton to Erik Formica, who will be posting here (along with others) going forward.
For my last post I wanted to do some educational and I know a very hot topic right now in the direct mail marketing world is the Intelligent Mail Barcode (IMB), something I know very little about, yes I would be the dummy in question.
So I thought what better way to transition to Erik than by interviewing him on this very topic. See, Erik not only works for fmi, he is also on the Board of the Postal Customer Council and is a certified mail piece design professional. He also sits on the board of the Philadelphia Direct Marketing Association (PDMA). 
SO: Help someone who is clueless, like me, understand just what the IMB is and why it’s important.
EF: First off, the IMB should not be feared, it’s just a barcode like any other barcode. It contains additional information that the current barcode does not. This additional information is what makes the IMB important. It gives mailers the ability to encode specific services such as address change service, and Confirm service which allows mailers to track every single mail piece down to the local post office.
The other reason it’s important is it’s the only barcode accepted for mailers to receive automation discounts come May, 2011.
SO: So a mailer can continue to use the current barcode after May, 2001 if they so choose?
EF: Yes. But they will not be able to receive any of the automation discounts they could previously. There is no really advantage to keep using the current barcode after May, 2011.
SO: So what’s a mailer’s first step in implementing the IMB?
EF: One place to find everything you need to know about the IMB is the Rapid Information Bulletin Board service (RIBBs) provided by the USPS. You’ll find information on Intelligent Mail Barcode Specifications, Online Encoder and Decoder information, Encoder Software and Fonts and much more.
SO: Ok, so from a mailer’s perspective the IMB makes complete sense. How about from a marketing perspective?
EF: There are two distinct advantages. Number 1, the IMB will free up what we call “mail piece real estate” which in layman’s terms means you can add more design elements to your direct mail piece than in the past.
The second advantage comes in the form of tracking and having the mail talk back to you. What I mean by that is you will be able to track every individual piece as it arrives at the post office nearest to the intended recipient.
SO: Under the current barcode, that’s not available?
EF: It is but right now you also have to add various codes to go along with the address in order to track to that level. These additional codes take up that valuable real estate I mentioned previously. The IMB leaves you with a much cleaner looking piece from an aesthetic standpoint while maintaining the functionality of the piece itself.
SO: Are there any other advantages from a marketing standpoint?
EF: Yes. Using the IMB will allow marketers to set up automated triggered events. For example, once a mail piece is scanned for actual delivery, that can trigger an event such as an automated email to arrive in the recipient’s in-box. That email can be nothing more than a “be on the lookout” type message which will allow marketers another opportunity to communicate with their audience.
SO: Thanks Erik. Even a dolt like me could understand that. Where else can people get help when it comes to the IMB?
EF: I’d be glad to help anyone who needs help understanding the IMB. People can call me directly at 215-464-011 or via email at eformica@fmidm.com.
Summer Postage Sale – well, sort of a sale, no, more like a small rebate
summer sale
To those that are excited about the impending summer postage sale, there are a few details you need to know, first, did you receive a letter from the USPS recently?
Here is what it looks like: summer-sale-electronic-letter
Here are the details:
The USPS has made it official (almost) that they are going forward with the proposed ‘Summer Sale’ event. The PRC must still weigh in with their decision, which is expected in late May, to make this program official. This program would provide a 30% postage credit on mailings submitted between July 1, 2009 and September 30, 2009. This incentive program is designed to increase mailing activity during the usually dormant summer months, when the USPS has their most excess capacity available.
Unlike most sales however, there are a multitude of qualifiers that apply to the Summer Sale.
Who and what qualifies?
For the most part, the USPS has already determined what mailers qualify. Letters were sent out on 5/7/09 to approximately 3,200 mailers whom they determined will be eligible for this program by utilizing the mail volume data that exists within their internal system.
1. This program only applies to Presorted Standard letters and flats.
2. The next qualifier is that you must have mailed a minimum of 1,000,000 pieces during the time period of October 1, 2007 and March 31, 2008. Total volume is calculated by mailer, so even if you utilize multiple permits, your total volume will be calculated across all permits that are associated to your organization. This also applies to “Ghost Numbersâ€, which are created if your mail is sent through a Mail Service Provider. If you feel you are eligible, but have not received a letter, then you can request a contact by emailing your information to summersale@usps.gov.
If you have met the criteria above, you are ready to begin to calculate the ‘Sale’ portion of the program. The 30% postage credit will be given only on the number of mail pieces that exceed your mailing threshold for the time period of July 1, 2009 to September 30, 2009. The caveat to this all is that your mail volume in October must not fall below your mailing threshold for that month. If this occurs; the total credit accrued from mailings between 7/1/09 to 9/30/09 will be deducted by the amount of pieces that fell below the threshold in October and that will be the final credit. The credit will be issued at some point in December of 2009 once the USPS has completed the above calculations.
How to calculate your potential savings:
Below is an example of how to calculate the savings that you as a mailer may receive through this program. Listed in this example is the all important Threshold, which will be the key to planning your mailings to take advantage of this program.
1. Base volume (7/1/08 – 9/30/08): 500,000 pieces
2. Trend:
a. Volume 10/1/08 – 3/31/09 = 1,800,000 pieces
b. Volume 10/1/07 – 3/31/08 = 2,000,000 pieces
c. a/b = (1,800,000 / 2,000,000) = .90 or 90%
3. Base x trend = Threshold:
500,000 x .90 = 450,000
4. Rebate = (Actual volume – threshold) x (actual postage cost / actual volume) x 30%
a. Actual volume for 7/1/09 – 9/30/09 – threshold =
475,000 – 450,000 = 25,000 pieces
b. Actual postage cost / actual volume =
$103,075 / 475,000 = $0.217
c. Rebate =
25,000 x $0.217 x .3 = $1627.50
The October Effect:
It is important to keep your mailing volume for October in mind when factoring the potential savings. If your volume falls below the calculated threshold, then your overall credit will be impacted. Below is an example of how to calculate this effect.
a. October 2008 volume x trend (in #2 above) = October threshold:
300,000 x .90 = 270,000 pieces
b. If October 2009 (260,000 pieces) < October threshold:
Threshold – actual = adjustment
270,000 – 260,000 = 10,000
Rebate adjustment
a. Actual volume – summer sale threshold – rebate adjustment:
475,000 – 450,000 – 10,000 = 15,000
b. New rebate:
15,000 x $.217 x .3 = $976.50
For those of you that have received a letter; be sure to certify the volume that the USPS has provided to you since this will be a binding once you have agreed to enroll in the program. Also be sure to have your response in by August 1st, 2009.
This program is a great way to potentially reach more customers at a lower cost and therefore enhance your business’ ROI. The system is not perfect, but it is a step in the right direction for the USPS to utilize their new found pricing freedom to help mailers.
From the Federal Register today:
Federal Register Notices
DATE: Pending publication in the Federal Register.
Standard Mail Volume Incentive Program (aka Summer Sale)
AGENCY: Postal Serviceâ„¢.
ACTION: Final rule.
SUMMARY:
The Postal Service is revising Mailing Standards of the United States Postal Service, Domestic Mail Manual (DMM®), to add section 709.2 which introduces new standards for a special volume incentive program for mailers of Standard Mail® letters and flats with mail volume exceeding their individual USPS™-determined threshold levels. The program period will be from July 1, 2009 through September 30, 2009.
EFFECTIVE DATE: July 1, 2009.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Kevin Gunther at 202-268-7208.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
The Postal Service is implementing a volume incentive program for qualified high-volume mailers of commercial or Nonprofit Standard Mail letters and flats, for volume mailed between July 1, 2009 and September 30, 2009, above their USPS-determined threshold level. This program encourages mailers to provide new volume and to take advantage of our current excess capacity to process and deliver additional volume.
Monkeying Around with Postal Pallets
Monkeying around with postal equipment
From the Dead Tree Edition
Where have all the pallets gone, U.S. Postal Service officials sometimes wonder.
The Postal Service spends millions of dollars annually replenishing the supply of pallets, tubs, mailbags, and the like because so many get diverted to other uses each year. Pat Donahoe, USPS’s COO, explained to the Mailers Technical Advisory Committee (MTAC) recently that, sometimes, getting the pallets back is no easy matter.
He displayed the following photo from a major U.S. zoo to prove his point.
Do you suppose there’s an Intelligent Mail barcode on these orangutans?
USPS: Ve Haf Vays of Making You Use Our Barcode
Wednesday, May 6, 2009 From the Dead Tree Edition
The Postal Service’s Intelligent Mail program might fail because it is not sufficiently attractive to mailers, the Government Accounting Office warned today.
Not to worry, the Postal Service responded. If the tiny Intelligent Mail barcode (IMb) discounts scheduled for later this year are not enough to entice mailers, it said, two years from now the huge penalties for not using IMbs will force mailers to change their ways. Starting in May 2011, mail without IMbs will be ineligible for automation discounts, which typically are at least several cents per mail piece.
“Some mailers have said they find the pricing incentives insufficient to recover their investment in the program,” said the GAO report. “For example, some large mailers said they invested millions of dollars to update and purchase hardware and software, while some smaller mailers expected to invest tens of thousands of dollars.”
Other highlights of the report and the Postal Service’s response:
The Intelligent Mail program “lacks a comprehensive strategy” that includes a detailed plan or “goals and measures of success”, the GAO said. The Postal Service agreed to beef up its planning but said the approach recommended by the GAO would drag out implementation too long.
“USPS and mailers may not be ready for implementation given USPS’s short-time period in which to simultaneously design, develop, test, and implement the Intelligent Mail program,” the report said. Amen to that!
An odd statement from the Postal Service: “Despite an extremely compressed schedule, the successful implementation of the Operating System environment on May 11 and the Test Environment for Mailers on May 18 demonstrates how well this effort works.” May 11 and 18 haven’t occurred yet, and mailers are reporting that the Postal Service is not ready for those key dates. See “Another Delay for Intelligent Mail?”
USPS “lacks information on costs and savings attributable to the Intelligent Mail program,” the GAO said. USPS responded that the program will give it valuable information enabling it to become more efficient but that “there is no sound financial method to specifically attribute these reductions to Intelligent Mail.”
“According to USPS, Intelligent Mail is the most complex project it has undertaken,” the GAO report said.
Postal detectives crack the case of messy, missing addresses
Barbara Trumpp (bottom center) and Arlene Jones (bottom right) process mail at the United States Postal Service Glendale Remote Encoding Center.
The Arizona Republic
Without leaving their cubicles, U.S. Postal Service sleuths in Glendale solve more than a million mail-delivery mysteries daily for post offices nationwide. Their wits and their computers are their only tools.
Is that a 3 or an 8? Senvisa or S. Envisa? Is a letter addressed “FCCI, Georgia” intended for the southern state’s FCCI Insurance Group in Duluth? Because it could be meant for the Floyd County Correctional Institute in Rome or the Fellowship of Companies for Christ International in Atlanta.
Sloppy handwriting and incomplete addresses, it turns out, almost succeed where snow, rain, heat and gloom of night fail in staying mail carriers from completing their rounds.
But those hard-to-read addresses usually don’t slow carriers because data-conversion operators using their best detecting skills are at work around the clock at the USPS Glendale Remote Encoding Center, save for the 10 hours it’s closed on Sundays.
The Glendale center is one of five in the United States – there were 55 when the postal service opened them in 1995 – devoted to interpreting scrawls and squiggles, blurs, smudges, missing information and otherwise ambiguous addresses.
In other words, the stuff that stumps the postal service’s sophisticated optical character-recognition software.
“This work makes me take a few extra minutes when I address my own envelopes,” says Debra Napier, one of more than 700 data-conversion operators, called keyers for short, employed at the site.
She’s seated in the midst of long rows of cubicles in a room adorned by little more than signs with U.S. cities’ names. Her eyes rarely stray from her computer.
Electronic images of envelopes sitting in 41 mail-processing plants across the U.S. flash onscreen, one after another, calling on her ability to decipher the shaky handwriting of a letter writer with arthritis or to see past the stickers obscuring an address. Twelve years as a teacher prepared her well for this job.
Napier also has learned a thing or two along the way. When addressing Christmas or birthday cards, she painstakingly prints rather than writing in cursive. She uses white envelopes even for Christmas cards, because addresses are hard to read on dark backgrounds. And forget silver ink.
Although most of the mail that keyers puzzle over is hand-addressed, they also see pieces printed with ink cartridges long overdue for replacement or displaying printer-produced addresses haphazardly positioned on envelopes.
In most cases, a machine at a mail-processing plant reads the address on an envelope, sprays on an ink barcode and sends the envelope on its way, keyer Steve Karr says. When the machine fails to read the address, an electronic image of the envelope is sent to a remote encoding center.
In the Glendale facility, the fastest keyers, like Karr, may handle an eye-blurring 900 to 1,000 images in an hour. Keyers succeed with as many as 75 percent of the pieces they process, says Chuck Van Dyke, manager of the Glendale Remote Encoding Center.
Aided by the postal service’s more than 2 petabytes of online data (think 4,000 years-plus of songs on your MP3 player), keyers examine the slightest clues – two digits of a ZIP code, a street name without house numbers, the first letter of a state abbreviation – and draw conclusions.
Postal abbreviations for four states start with an “A.” That letter coupled with a ZIP code beginning with 8 tells keyers the mail should go to someone in Arizona, not Alabama, Alaska or Arkansas.
Kerr, with 13 years on the job, peers at his screen and sees a sliver of a number, determining what it is based on its position between other numbers. On another envelope, he notices that a sender who inadvertently reversed positions for the mail and return addresses has scrawled arrows to indicate the mistake.
The goal is turning around each piece in no more than 20 minutes, Van Dyke says.
But the process usually is far speedier. As staff members work, they’re thinking about the child eager for a birthday card or the person looking for her W2 form so she can file her income-tax return.
“Back at the plant that has the indecipherable letter, there’s a truck getting ready to carry the mail,” Van Dyke says, “and it leaves by 10 p.m. local time. The times are lined up on the computer so keyers can see which of the pieces of mail they’re working on are becoming critical timewise.”
Such scenarios occur less frequently these days. Advances in technology have made the postal system’s optical scanning equipment capable of reading 95 percent of handwritten envelopes, up from 2 percent when the centers opened, Van Dyke says.
With demand for their work decreasing, three of the remaining remote encoding centers will be closed, the Glendale facility in May 2010.
Still, even the most advanced optical scanning and the best efforts of data-conversion operators fail at times to divine a letter’s destination. Then, once more, a human must intervene.
A letter addressed “Jane Doe, Second House Around the Corner from the Barber Shop, St. Peter, MN”?
That will go to Minnesota, where a mail carrier in the small town of St. Peter knows exactly whose mailbox to tuck the letter into.
Redplum mailer lets marketers dissect why some mail practices are not ideal
Redplum coupons
From the May 04, 2009 Issue of DMNews
Scott Couvillon President of marketing, DukkyMay 04, 2009
In critiquing this mailer piece from Redplum, we also can examine the direct mail practices we see every day that crush any chance of significant redemption and contribute to the definition of “junk mail.” 

First, the format: How did you feel the last time you stood in the center of a crowded tourist destination with a flag-sized street map unfurled in your hands? This is a similar badge that coupons carry. It is part of the reason why gift cards, according to two studies recent studies, redeem 10% to 30% higher than coupons with an identical offer. Gift cards have a perceived value that coupons lack, and personalization only increases the perceived value. And, anonymous coupons sent to someone name “resident” lack any perceived value. 

Therefore, to improve the format of the piece, I’d like to see more personalization, less anonymity. Also, the structure of this Redplum mailer makes capturing redemption information difficult. The model allows for customer engagement, but doesn’t give them a reason to. 

Next, the analytics: Coupons like these, are sent out en masse. Redemption is typically reported through a clearinghouse or a point-of-sale system after the fact. Whatever the case, this process can fail to capture significant amounts of information. While too long to list, two fundamental failings that stand out are which specific recipients redeemed and who was interested, but never got around to it. 

Finally, the relevance: While you could argue that saving money and pizza are universal constants, there is no predictor that the brands represented in this piece will benefit. A significant flaw with any saturation mailing, and a reason for lower redemption rates, is that there is no effort made to match the right offers to the right people.

Any offer that lacks relevance and perceived value could be seen as inefficient. More contemporary solutions should take these lessons, apply more advance targeting technology and offer marketers equal economy with far greater returns both in revenue and feedback. 

The bottom line is not to abandon direct mail, but to improve your direct mail investments. l

Another Delay for Intelligent Mail?
From the Dead Tree Edition
Monday, April 27, 2009
With the Intelligent Mail Barcode (IMb) program veering off the tracks, prominent mailers called for the U.S. Postal Service to hit the brakes today on the much-delayed program.
“There is a general consensus that even if the USPS stays with their commitment of May 18 it will be almost impossible for the program to begin in a successful manner,†says a memo written by Jack Widener, a respected industry consultant, that Idealliance released today to its members. Widener, a former Newsweek executive, chairs the IMb users group for the major trade association.
Dead Tree Edition has previously noted that IMb, a major strategic initiative for the Postal Service, is “a train wreck waiting to happen” because of failures in coordination, communication, and planning.
Mailers and their vendors complain that the rules and procedures for IMb are still in a state of flux. Even today, the complex and critical “Service Type Identifier Matrix†in one USPS document contained the qualifier, “Final Revision will be completed as soon as possible.
“When will the changes stop so the program can by implemented by USPS,†Widener wrote. “There are 11 open issues that are not assigned and that must be resolved with only 21 days to go.â€
Among the “show stoppers†listed by another report Idealliance sent to members today is one that would force Periodicals-class co-mail participants either to “leap to electronic payment without sufficient testing or pull out of co-mail/co-pall.†The report lists other restrictions for various classes of mail on co-palletization, co-mail, palletization, and firm bundling that would result from glitches in programs related to IMb.
Perhaps postal executives realize, Widener writes, what even their underlings admit — that USPS will not be ready on May 18 date.
If so, he argues that they should “tell us now so that all can plan accordingly and alert their customers and suppliers in the mailing supply chain. And don’t blame it on their customers; if they do this it will be not due to lack of mailer preparation. We have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars and invested people’s time to implement as soon as information was received from the USPS. But we must be given adequate time to implement the numerous changes that are happening.”
The IMB has great possibilities, but they don’t come free!!
Unknown to many mailers, the Postal Service last week quietly distributed to Confirm subscribers an update to its Publication 197, Confirm User Guide, which includes specifications and requirements to Confirm data provisioning for Full Service Intelligent Mail barcode users that will result in the need to purchase additional Confirm subscriber IDs at $2,500 for each non-subscriber in order to have the data provisioned to that entity. Mailers are not pleased at what some see as a covert move by the Postal Service that will result in onerous price increases for Confirm Service.
Chinese postal worker sentenced to death for $265m embezzlement
I guess that would be a deterrent to further crime…
April 26, 2009
From the Sydney Morning Herald
A POSTAL bank official in southern China was sentenced to death for siphoning more than 1.3 billion yuan ($265 million) to pay her gambling debts.
State media reported yesterday that He Liqiong, 45, was given the death penalty by a court in Guangdong province. She was convicted of siphoning deposits from a post office bank in Foshan city to pay off debts incurred whilegambling in casinos in neighbouring Macau.
Officials gambling away public funds in Macau have become a headache for Chinese authorities. Several corruption incidents have been linked to gambling.
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