USPS: Postal Service announces unique payment and delivery solutions

The U.S. Postal Service
today announced unique enhancements to its USPS eBillPay and Priority Mail
services that tie electronic financial transactions to the Postal Service's
traditional delivery of packages. These enhancements are a milestone in the
implementation of the original plan that was announced with the national
launch of USPS eBillPay in April 2000, and provide consumers with the ability
to send money and pay for merchandise at the time of delivery electronically,
securely and conveniently. Specifically, today's announcement creates valuable links between unique
Postal capabilities euro" Priority Mail, Delivery Confirmation and the USPS
Electronic Postmark euro" and the electronic movement of money facilitated by
CheckFree Corp. (NASDAQ:CKFR) and the financial services industry. Because
these enhancements are being accomplished through the linkage of existing
systems, there is virtually no incremental cost to the Postal Service. Including USPS eBillPay, which enables customers to view and pay their bills
online, the following additions create a unique suite of payment and delivery
services via www.usps.com: Pay@Delivery – Similar to the existing Collect-On-Delivery (COD) service
offered by the Postal Service since 1913, this feature's main purpose is to
make access to traditional Postal Services easier and more convenient by
combining electronic payments with Priority Mail and Delivery Confirmation
services. Sellers of merchandise at online auctions can, for example, print
out the buyer's address label with Delivery Confirmation barcodes from their
personal computer and drop off the package at any of over 38,000 post offices.
Buyers of merchandise at online auctions can send their money to the seller
online and have the money released electronically when the mail carrier
delivers the package and scans the Delivery Confirmation barcodes. Available
on the Postal Service web site, CheckFree will offer Pay@Delivery to its
financial services customers as a standard feature. Also, individuals selling
merchandise online can now place the Pay@Delivery logo and link on their web
site to offer this convenient and secure payment and delivery option to their
customers. Send Money – Similar to a domestic Postal Money Order, which has been
available to the American public since 1864, this feature enables anyone to
send money to anyone else using the Internet. This person-to-person payment addition will allow customers to send money
securely to anyone with a checking-enabled account and an email address. Like
Pay@Delivery, individuals selling merchandise online can place the logo and
link on their web site to offer convenient and secure payment and delivery
options to their customers. USPS Electronic Postmark euro" Combining tamper detection with a time-and-date
seal applied by the Postal Service, the Electronic Postmark verification
provides trusted, third-party proof of when a payment was initiated. Every
payment transaction processed through USPS eBillPay, Pay@Delivery, and Send
Money will be postmarked euro" when they are created and sent, when they are
changed and when they are canceled. The Postal Service has been postmarking
mail since 1775. "The Postal Service has historically connected the movement of money with the
delivery of merchandise by using its COD and money order options. By
implementing the core of our plan announced in April 2000 at this time, we're
creating linkages that upgrade services the American public has used and
trusted for decades," said Stephen M. Kearney, senior vice president,
Corporate and Business Development. "We're serving our customers better by providing them with options on how they
conduct the business of their lives." The Postal Service launched USPS eBillPay in April 2000, after signing a
long-term strategic alliance with CheckFree Corp. In addition to moving money
electronically, the USPS eBillPay service allows payments to be made to
businesses not yet equipped to receive electronic payments by issuing paper
checks sent via First-Class Mail. The payment plans include two by subscription, in which new users receive
three free months of service, and one non-subscription plan. The pricing is as follows: Subscription Plan – $6.95 per month for up to 20 payments, and 50-cents for
each additional payment transaction; Subscription Plan – $1.50 per month, plus
65-cents for each payment transaction; Non-Subscription Plan – $1.00 per
payment transaction. The United States Postal Service has provided 226 years of trusted, secure and
universal delivery service to every American. The Postal Service delivers mail
to 134 million addresses with nearly two million addresses being added every
year. Delivering more than 200 billion mail pieces each year, the Postal
Service delivers approximately 46 percent of the world's card and letter mail
volume. The Postal Service web site, www.usps.com, is one of the most heavily visited
federal sites and averages seven million visits per month. M2 Communications Ltd disclaims all liability for information provided within
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