The U.S. Postal Service expects that its Intelligent Mail service will be fully operational for all commercial mailers by 2009, a change that is expected to greatly benefit large-business mailers.
The Intelligent Mail service uses a special barcode that allows business mailers to give a unique identifier to each letter and large envelope they mail, enabling a better mail tracking system.
The Intelligent Mail service will also be the focus of the upcoming New England Business Mail Expo, held April 17 in Boxborough, as the Postal Service continues to raise awareness for the more efficient business mailing service.
According to Sue Brennan, a postal spokesperson, the Intelligent Mail barcode is essentially like having a "little GPS system on each piece of mail."
"It gives us a way to track individual pieces of mail from mailers," Brennan said. "It allows businesses to track mail piece by piece through the postal system from the time it's sent to the time it is delivered."
Brennan said the Intelligent Mail system is for businesses that send large amounts of mail and use printing companies to print it. The print companies have high-tech machinery that will be updated to enable them to print the Intelligent Mail barcode on each piece of mail. The business then brings the mail to a Postal Service processing and distribution company to be mailed.
Brennan said the new system provides many benefits for large businesses including enhanced address quality. With the new barcode system, businesses that keep costly address lists can link with Postal Service computers and get the most up-to-date address change information, enhancing address accuracy, Brennan said.
Businesses also provide advanced notification of each shipment, allowing the Postal Service to verify addresses and make sure the correct postage is paid, returning incorrect information to the mailer to make corrections, making mailing more efficient.
According to the U.S. Postal Service Web site, the Intelligent Mail service will also help businesses better manage their resources and allow them to be more responsive to customers as well as reduce operating and marketing expenses.
The Intelligent Mail process is fully automated, and one mailer improved its scan rate to 99 percent, enabling 140,000 pieces of mail to be processed each day by postal equipment rather than processed manually, according to a press release.
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