Post Office pondering Intelligent Mail barcodes on all commercial parcels

This is taken and condensed from Enterprise Labeling News, posted March 13, 2013
http://enterpriselabeling.com/2013/03/14/usps-moving-toward-requiring-the-use-of-intelligent-mail-barcodes-on-all-commercial-parcels/

Since January 28, mailers looking to take advantage of the discounted "automation prices" offered by USPS have been required to use the Intelligent Mail barcode.

Now, it seems the agency is preparing to require the use of the new barcodes on all commercial parcels. On February 26, the Postal Service published a pertinent notice in the Federal Register, informing mailers that it is "exploring the advisability of requiring the use of Intelligent Mail package barcodes (IMpb) or unique tracking Intelligent Mail barcodes (IMb) on all commercial parcels."

The organization said it would expect to implement the new standards "on or about July 28, 2013." USPS offered a brief explanation of the rationale behind its actions by pointing to the benefits associated with the "intelligent" barcodes.

"Mailers will benefit from the tracking services provided with IMpb, both from improved service performance and from more efficient postal operations," the notice said.

The notice in the Federal Register was introduced as a way to provide stakeholders with an opportunity to submit comments before the beginning of a final rulemaking process. The agency will be accepting comments on the proposal until March 28, 2013.

For continuous form printers that are IMb capable and ready, visit http://www.chooseglmgroup.com/Pages/CheshireLabelsIMBIntelligentMailBarcodePrintingonImpactPrinters.aspx

Intelligent Mail Barcode; the savings behind the change

REF: Blog by Don Dew of InfoPrint

Print customers will focus on the "click charge" for a change to their sheet-fed printers, and totally miss the impact of the change to the barcoding of the address.

Implementing the Intelligent Mail Barcode can save $0.003 per mail-piece.

Not every impact printer supports the new barcode. Neither does every output software.

MAPPING Suite can generate the IMb without any changes to your current application software.

A workflow implementation like InfoPrint ADF very often achieves an ROI in 18 months or less, even if it includes full service Intelligent Mail.

If you were receiving automation rates in the past by using a POSTNET barcode, then you’re performing all the right steps to generate a basic IMb. The IMb contains the ZIP+4+destination point data that was embedded in POSTNET, plus your mailer ID number and service type.

For more information, contact Warren Neeley at wneeley@pciprinters.com or 866-430-6202.