MTAC Workgroup 102 Update Advance Notification, Streamlined Acceptance &

Visibility for First-Class Mail

January 2008

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• Issue Statement - Define capabilities of advance notification, streamlined acceptance and visibility for First-Class Mail

• Develop an approach for First-Class Mail notification and visibility.

Develop an approach for First-Class Mail mailers to provide mailing information electronically using standardized platforms such as mail.dat, web services or postage statement wizard

Develop an approach to communicate this advance notification downstream through postal supply chain

Develop an approach to leverage barcodes to identify assets and mailpieces to streamline acceptance and for additional visibility

Develop an approach to provide visibility at asset level, such as tray scans from air carriers, in conjunction with the piece level information that is available through Confirm today

Issue Statement and Desired Results

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Modified Mail.dat to accommodate First-Class Mail

Pilot participants using Mail.dat, PDR and ADIS to submit mailing information

Workgroup under MTAC 117 to complete implementation of Web Services with vendor participation

Electronic Mailing Information

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• Develop an approach for First-Class Mail notification and visibility.

• Support measurement of start-the-clock and service performance.

• With mailer advance notification, USPS can improve operations and service performance for First-Class Mail:

Transportation Optimization

– Better route planning for Air Lift and Surface Transportation

Processing

– Better forecast of mail volumes and machine utilization

Staffing

– Enable USPS to forecast resource staffing based on expected mail volume

Advance Notification

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Advance Notification

• USPS can give better service performance measurement to First-Class mailers provided that the following can be supplied by mailers:

Advance notification of First-Class mail:

– Mailer plant loads (USPS Pick-up and Contracted routes)

– USPS drops (BMEU verification and Seamless)

– Will help USPS planning for Operational activities and the necessary resources to process mail

Forecasting information

– Pilot data indicated that SPLY (Same Period Last Year) data was within 3% when used to forecast

– Some customers are able to provide SPLY while others are able to forecast

– Will allow USPS to gather and analyze data for transportation optimization of air and ground transportation if data is known

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• Implement solution in FAST to capture advance notification and provide visibility back to the mailers

• Integration of FAST with USPS Transportation and Planning Systems

• Integration with PostalOne! payment and verification systems

• Implementation of FAST for First-Class will provide mailers the:

Ability to submit advance notification of loads to USPS

Visibility into induction data

Ability to track Advance Notification against actual

Recommendations

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Barcodes & Visibility

Additional Barcode visibility elements defined– Container Barcodes, Tray Barcodes

Retrieved Container Scan and Tray scan Data in Pilot

– Container/Pallet Scan Data from Surface Visibility

– Tray Scan Data from PostalOne! Transportation Management

– Air Transport Tray Data from SASS

Finalized Recommendations for Scan Data formats

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