New scanners increase value of U.S mail
The Postal Service has signed a multi-year ordering agreement with Motorola for a new generation of Intelligent Mail(R) hand-held scanning devices. The scanners contribute to Postal Service efforts to give postal customers and postal operations end-to-end visibility of mail from processing to delivery.
A major strategy in the Postal Service’s Transformation Plan – its blueprint for the future – calls for adding value to mail through technology.
“Today, information about the mail is as valued as the mail itself. This new generation of hand-held scanning devices supports our efforts to provide postal customers with information about their mail, information they can use to better manage their resources and increase their responsiveness to their customers,” said Charlie Bravo, U.S. Postal Service Senior Vice-President, Intelligent Mail and Address Quality.
Motorola has agreed to design, manufacture and support a family of hand-held scanning devices that will support several Postal Service products and services and provide the cornerstone to its Intelligent Mail Data Acquisition System (IMDAS).
Currently, hand-held scanning devices are used in virtually every Postal Service facility nationwide. The new IMDAS scanning devices will be built on a common, integrated architecture and infrastructure and include various forms of communication. This will provide for a standard, integrated method of receiving data from all types of postal facilities and create the ability to distribute data to many different applications. While the scanning devices may consist of several designs, the components of the devices will be consistent.
The scanners will include the capability for both the 4-state barcode and 2-dimensional (2-d) codes. The 4-state barcode, currently under testing by the Postal Service, can hold nearly 3 times as much data as the current POSTNET code that is used by the Postal Service to sort and deliver the mail. The 2-d code, currently used today in PC Postage, can contain considerably more data than a barcode in the same amount of space.
During the term of the three-year contract, the Postal Service will acquire scanners by placing individual delivery orders as programs are approved by the Board of Governors. The minimum order quantity for the contract is USD5.5 million but the estimated spending under the contract over its three year term is approximately USD300 million.
Motorola U.S. Federal Government Markets Division (USFGMD) of Columbia, MD was competitively selected for the award. Significant subcontractors include Siemens Dematic Postal Automation L.P. and Jones Lang LaSalle.
Under the terms of the contract, Surface Visibility scanners are anticipated to be awarded by the end of July 2004.
The Surface Visibility program is part of the Postal Service’s overall Transportation Visibility strategy. In this phase, systems will track several visibility points from container loading to the unloading of Postal Service and postal customer trailers. The new Intelligent Mail scanning devices will be used to capture this data. Currently, 12,000 wireless scanning devices are planned, one-third of them hands free.
Future orders, pending approval from the Postal Service Board of Governors, will include the replacement of the Postal Service’s current Mobile Data Collection Device (MDCD) used for Delivery Confirmation and other services.
