Last week representatives from the mailing industry met with USPS in Washington DC. Here’s a quick recap of some of the topics discussed:

• The biggest announcement, in my opinion, was they finally announced the end of POSTNET! Starting January 2013, an Intelligent Mail barcode (IMb) will be required to get automation discounts. They’ve pushed this back many times before, but I think they really mean it this time.
• And second biggest was their announcement that Full-Service IMb will be required for Automation discounts in January 2014. While they were pretty confident about this date, I don’t think they’ve thought this all the way through, and this date is likely to slip. But that doesn’t mean mailers shouldn’t get started on this now. The goal is to have 100% of automation mail tracked using IMb by 2014.
• “Did you hear the one about the unstamped letter? You wouldn’t get it.” — CFO Joe Corbett, budding comedian
• The mobile barcode incentive will be back this summer. First-Class and Standard mailers who include an approved mobile barcode on their pieces will get a 2% discount on their mail. To learn more about this incentive, including the new requirements for where the barcode goes, see the documentation on RIBBS.
• Postmaster General Pat Donahoe laid out his new business plan for USPS. In order to get out of the financial hole they’re in, USPS wants to:
  • Pull out of the government healthcare system and self-insure.
  • Re-align the postal network, including several thousand office closures, along with closing over half the sorting facilities. This could also include eliminating Saturday delivery, pending Congressional action. For a complete list of facilities they want to close, see the network realignment page. Mailers should still be able to drop their mail at their existing centers and still get the SCF discounts.
  • Encourage more employees to retire (almost half of the staff is currently eligible to retire).
  • Increase the cost of a First-Class stamp to $0.50.
  • Eliminate retirement pre-funding (this would also require Congressional action).
  • All together this could save USPS $20 billion by 2016, which would ensure they stay in the black.
• Donahoe said “We have to act on this now. Putting a couple of pieces together and holding your breath is not the solution. We will be in an untenable position in five to six years. It is hard to get the message across. Everyone can’t have their cake and eat it too. When you look at our outlook and do nothing, we look like Greece.” And it’s interesting to note, Congress doesn’t seem as ready to assist USPS as the EU has been ready to bail out Greece.
• The PMG also noted that his big dream is to have all “large” mailers using “seamless acceptance”. Basically seamless acceptance is Full-Service IMb on steroids – the USPS will just take their mail, then bill them the rates later. This assumes that those large mailers are preparing easy-to-process mail, and that the USPS will bill them accordingly. For “smaller” mailers, he envisions them dropping their mail off at their local post office window, not the current Business Mail Entry Unit (BMEU). They didn’t define what makes a mailer “large” or “small”.
• Productivity is up, but they can only cut so much. USPS will pay their employees first, suppliers second, but won’t be able to make the $11 billion payment to the government for health pre-funding this year.
• At some point they want to move to a single account/single permit world, rather than have each company register a permit at every drop location. But this system hasn’t been built yet, and won’t be until 2013 at the earliest.
• The MTAC meetings are getting restructured this year to encourage more participation and communication. This means I’ll be a little busier at the next MTAC.

So big changes are afoot! We should hear a lot more about the IMb changes between now and NPF.

barcodes · direct mail · events · Full-Service · Intelligent Mail · mail preparation · mobile barcodes · MTAC · National Postal Forum · NPF · POSTNET · prices · QR codes · USPS

Mail.dat® and Mail.XML are similar services for sending your mailing information electronically. But because these options are nearly identical, it can be difficult selecting the right service for your business needs. Here’s a guide to each service to help you decide which one will most benefit you.

What they have in common

• Mail.dat and Mail.XML each contain all the documentation you need to describe your mailing and populate all postal forms.
• Mail.dat and Mail.XML are industry standards maintained by IDEAlliance.
• In order to use either Mail.dat or Mail.XML with PostalOne!®, you will need to test your submissions in the Test Environment for Mailers (TEM) system.
• The layouts for Mail.dat and Mail.XML change periodically to account for changes in the industry and USPS regulations. PostalOne! supports up to two layouts of each at any one time.
• Both Mail.dat and Mail.XML satisfy the electronic documentation requirement for the Full-Service discount.

A few myths to dispel

• You need a Mail.dat license to use Mail.XML. False.
  In order to use Mail.XML, you do not also need Mail.dat. Mail.XML can be used as a standalone submission of your mailing paperwork. It can also be used to edit a Mail.dat submission.
• USPS is going to stop supporting Mail.dat. False.
  Mail.XML isn’t going to replace Mail.dat. Mail.dat is an established standard in the mailing industry and will continue to be used to communicate mailing structure and content to both USPS and third-party mail consolidators.

The Key Difference

Mail.dat is a file system

Mail.dat is a relational database that describes all parts of the mailing except the addresses themselves. It’s well known and supported by the mail industry, and is heavily used by logistics and mail consolidators. Because everything is contained in one file, it is easy to transfer everything to another computer by email or ftp. Mail.dat files can become rather large, and sending them may take extra time. Because Mail.dat contains all the possible information about your mailing, you can think of Mail.dat as an “encyclopedia” of your mailing.

Mail.XML is a communication system

Mail.XML is a way two computers can communicate. Bits of mailing information are described in XML messages. Together those messages become the content of your mailing. Mail.XML is relatively new and isn’t supported by all of the mailing industry yet. Storing Mail.XML is tricky; each communication is separate from the next. The smaller messages make communicating larger mailings faster. No extraneous data is included in the message. Because Mail.XML is a conversation about your mailing, you can think of Mail.XML as a series of emails about your mailing.

Which is right for me?

Talk with your downstream partners and your presort software vendor. Some of these companies haven’t made the switch to Mail.XML yet. But if you will be submitting your mailing data directly to PostalOne! and use a software product like Bulk Mailer, Mail.XML is the easier method to get started. If you would like a more in-depth evaluation, contact Satori Software and we can talk about your business needs.

barcodes · direct mail · Electronic Documentation · Full-Service · Intelligent Mail · mail preparation · Mail.dat · Mail.xml · mailing paperwork · mailing software · PostalOne! · USPS

You’ve weighed the options, and decided that you’d like to start using electronic documentation (eDocs) in place of your current postal paperwork. There are three ways to submit your mailing electronically — how do you know which one is best for your workflow? The answer depends on your mail volume, number of mailings and more. Let’s look at the different types of eDocs and how they work.

Mail.dat^®

Mail.dat is what most mailers think of when they hear “electronic documentation.” The mailing industry has been using Mail.dat files to communicate postal paperwork and mailing content since 1996 — it is well established as the standard. This makes Mail.dat the preferred option when using transportation or consolidation services and the most widely used form of eDocs in software packages. However, additional software is usually required, and storing the Mail.dat files can get confusing. USPS also requests that Mail.dat users go through an extensive testing process before submitting live mailings.

Mail.XML™

Ultimately Mail.XML contains all the information Mail.dat does, but the data is transmitted a different way. Rather than a set of complete files, Mail.XML is more like a series of short messages that together describe a mailing. Mail.XML is rather new, and not all software packages support it. There are no files to keep track of, but you still have to go through the same USPS testing process for PostalOne! submission. Once you’ve passed the test, Mail.XML is mostly likely the most streamlined way to submit mailing paperwork.

The Postal Wizard

Want to skip the testing process? You can use the Postal Wizard to enter postage statements directly into PostalOne! for some mailings. No extra software or files are required, but you must manually type in all the information from your postage statements. If you do several mailings each day, this can take awhile and it’s easier to make mistakes. There are several types of mailings that are not supported by the Postal Wizard, including Full-Service mailings over 10,000 pieces, or any mailing that requires a Qualification Report.

Which should I choose?

If you mail occasionally and don’t mind typing up your postage statements, the Postal Wizard may work for you. Mail.dat or Mail.XML will be a better choice for most regular mailers. Contact Satori Software if you’d like to learn more, or stay tuned to this blog for more in-depth analysis of Mail.dat and Mail.XML.

direct mail · Electronic Documentation · Full-Service · Intelligent Mail · mail preparation · Mail.dat · Mail.xml · mailing software · Postal Wizard · PostalOne! · USPS