Tag: Pitney Bowes

Pitney Bowes receives USPS CASS certification on SmartMailer and AddressRight Pro software solutions

Posted by | Jul 17, 2007 | |

Pitney Bowes Inc. announced that its SmartMailer 7 and AddressRight Pro mail management software solutions have received U.S. Postal Service CASS certification for the upcoming Cycle L requirements, scheduled for release on August 1, 2007.

The U.S. Postal Service estimates it spends nearly USD 2 billion each year handling mail that cannot be delivered as addressed. In an effort to cut this cost in half by 2010, the Postal Service is becoming much more stringent on discounts offered to mailers designed to encourage greater accuracy of their address lists. Starting on August 1, 2007, postal automation discounts will only be applicable to mail pieces with a confirmed primary address through the DPV and LACSLink products. Pitney Bowes’ CASS Certified SmartMailer 7 and AddressRight Pro software will include both capabilities.

The DPV™ product verifies that an address is recognized as a valid delivery point by the Postal Service and helps identify inaccurate, incomplete or erroneous addresses. LACSLink™ processing provides mailers with a converted physical address when a 911 emergency system has changed a rural-style address to a city-style address.

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Tighter standards for addresses prompt new look at mailing practices

Posted by | Jul 16, 2007 | |

The new standards are designed to bring greater efficiency and lower costs to the mailstream. One of the biggest sources of waste in the current system is mail that lacks a valid address and cannot be delivered. The Postal Service estimates it spends nearly $2 billion each year to handle this mail, and mailers waste billions of dollars more creating mail pieces that ultimately cannot reach their intended recipient. The Postal Service has committed to cutting undeliverable mail by 50 pct by the year 2010.

The root cause is address lists that are not updated to reflect the tens of millions of changes that occur every year as families move, new households are created, new buildings open, old buildings close or are repurposed, and streets are built or renamed. In tests conducted by Pitney Bowes, up to 12 pct of the letters in a typical mailing may have substandard addresses.

Effective August 1, the Postal Service will no longer provide automation discounts for mail that lacks what the USPS calls a “valid delivery point,” tacking up to six additional cents on to the postage for each such piece. For a mail drop of 100,000 pieces where 6 pct lack valid delivery points, this could result in more than USD 230 in higher postage costs for the mailer. Multiplied across the billions of letters that enter the mailstream every year, the potential financial hit reaches tens of millions of dollars.

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Pitney Bowes and RPost Ink Global Deal

Posted by | Jun 26, 2007 | |

Pitney Bowes and RPost, the leader in managed outbound messaging with its flagship Registered E-mail services, today announced that they have entered into a global alliance. Under terms of the agreement, Pitney Bowes will offer RPost Registered E-mail services to its mailstream customers.

By adding RPost services, Pitney Bowes can now provide its customers with a full set of high-value outbound messaging tools for client records management, compliance, e-discovery, paper reduction and cost reduction initiatives. RPost Registered E-mail messages provide e-mail senders with verifiable proof of message delivery, content and time stamp for e-mails sent to any Internet address.

Information-intensive markets, such as legal services, are challenged with managing thousands of records and producing information on demand, faster and more cost-effectively than ever before. The Radicati Group, a leading market research firm in the computer and telecommunications industry, estimates that the average business user sends and receives about 170 e-mail messages per day. Highly sensitive business is conducted via e-mail, with discoverable data scattered across an organization, on mail servers, desktops and mobile devices. The RPost service will enable Pitney Bowes customers to streamline the process of managing and retrieving critical business communications, with an easy-to-use, cost-effective solution.

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Pitney Bowes Mailstream Solutions Receive USPS® MASS™ Certification

Posted by | Jun 15, 2007 | |

Pitney Bowes today announced that its Multi-Line Optical Character Reader (MLOCR) letter sorter product line has received U.S. Postal Service® MASS™ (Multi-Line Accuracy Support System) vendor certification for the upcoming Cycle L Requirements, scheduled for implementation on August 1, 2007.

Each year, MLOCR sorting equipment, along with mail sorting operations, must achieve MASS™ certification in order to continue to sort mail and achieve workshare postage discounts from the USPS. This year the equipment certification process was particularly challenging due to the new and more stringent requirements from the USPS designed to curtail Undeliverable As Address (UAA) mail.

The current MASS™ certification requires sorters to perform DPV™ (Delivery Point Validation) and LACSLink™ (Locatable Address Correction Service) processing which dramatically increases the processing requirements on mail sorting equipment. The sorter is designed to capture the image of the mailing address, perform a database lookup and validation and then print a barcode at processing speeds of up to 36,000 mail pieces per hour.

Pitney Bowes has worked closely with the USPS for 87 years. Their engineers and software developers are charged with optimizing mailstream operations for clients by developing best-of-breed hardware and software solutions that consistently earn USPS® certification.

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DM News webcast addresses postal rate increase

Posted by | Jun 13, 2007 | |

Converting flat mail to letter size is just one way for mailers to reduce the burden of the new postal rates, said Elizabeth Lombard, USPS rate specialist at Pitney Bowes.

“Consolidate mailings,” Ms. Lombard said. “For example, mail fewer but heavier pieces. This is ideal for households and consumers.” One could mail a statement and offer in the same envelope rather than mail them separately.

Ms. Lombard also suggested that mailers consider First-Class Mail postcards as an alternative to letters. She said that it is not only cheaper but also a guarantee that the consumer will at least see a message since it is out in the open. Envelopes are not always opened.

“Eliminate non-machinable characteristics to avoid the 17-cent surcharge for First-Class letters,” Ms. Lombard said. “Also avoid parcel rates by designing flats to meet new regulations.”

She said mail pieces should be uniformly thick so that any bumps, protrusions or other irregularities do not cause more than a quarter-inch variance in thickness.

Exclude the outside edges of a mail piece when determining variance in thickness.

Mail pieces should be flexible, too. If it can bend at least one inch vertically without being damaged and does not contain a rigid inset, no further testing is necessary.

The rate increase for periodicals will go into effect July 15, 2007.

“Bundle rates will be based on sort level and container level,” said Mike Plunkett, acting vice president, pricing and classification at the United States Postal Service. “Container rates will be based on container type, level and entry.”

He also said that the rates hike for periodicals was put on hold by USPS Governors to allow time for software development.

When talking about the rate hike that is already in effect, Mr. Plunkett said the increase reflects changes in operations and the marketplace, offers more choices, includes incentives, reduces undeliverable-as-addressed mail and better reflects shape effects.

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