Streamlined Mail Acceptance
Streamlined Acceptance is an initiative implemented by the Postal Service to automate processes including verification, compliance, and receipt of mail. These initiatives are achieved through the use of data collection from mailers and postal equipment.
There are 4 key components of this initiative.
Intelligent Mail Full Service
Full Service mailings and Intelligent Mail Barcodes were the future of USPS requirements over 10 years ago. It is common practice today. Full Service is a very complicated process that takes some time to master. In a nutshell, every piece, tray, and pallet must have unique barcodes on them which must remain unique for 45 days. Electronic mailing submission must be used and things like accurately reporting By/For or meeting Move Update Compliance are necessary. In return, the USPS will apply a $.003 per piece discount in postage to every qualifying piece.
Discounts are handled differently amongst different comminglers. Some give all or some of it back to the customer if they pre-barcode the mail and manage the uniqueness. Because of the large investment and higher risk to the overall mailing, some comminglers keep the discount. Others share a portion of it with their customers. There is no right or wrong here. This should be part of your overall cost per piece factor when choosing your commingler.
Move Update
The Postal Service has required Move Update compliance for many years. It is achieved by a technique called NCOA (National Change of Address) processing. The Move Update requirement states the address on a mail piece must be compared to the NCOA database within 95 days of the postage statement mailing date in which that mail piece belongs to and updated with the new address when a match presents itself.
The USPS Scorecard presents a mailer with records that do not meet those requirements using a census type reporting method. Mailers that exceed the threshold in a given month are required to pay an assessment for each piece above the threshold to offset the costs incurred by the USPS to forward that mail to the current address accordingly..
eInduction
eInduction is an electronic approach to inducting pallets of mail at the USPS. By accurately reporting pallet destination and barcode information in the mailing eDoc, the USPS staff can efficiently receive and manage the pallets inducted with a limited need for manual checks or a clerk stamped 8017/8125. When pallets are scanned by the Postal Service, they are immediately checked for payment then released into production. This requires very little effort from the commingler to accomplish. The most complicated task is to make sure the pallet barcodes on the pallet are all accounted for properly in the eDoc and that the pallets are delivered to the correct postal destination. The eDoc characteristics inform the Postal Service about how to handle the pallet should it be delivered to the wrong location.
Seamless Acceptance
Seamless Acceptance is the process in which mailing verifications happen while the mail is being processed through the postal system. This process bypasses clerk verifications at the local BMEU or the mailer's on-site DMU. Seamless Acceptance is the final piece that brings all 4 components of Streamlined Acceptance together and it simplifies the process of submitting mailings to the Postal Service for processing. Errors found during the processing of the mail through the Postal Service are recorded to the mailer's USPS Scorecard and assessed using the census method. This method consists of measuring results of the entire month's worth of mailings as a whole then comparing those results to pre-defined thresholds. Any pieces exceeding the category threshold are then assessed a penalty based on how that category is calculated. This method is extremely beneficial to mailers as it results in processing time flexibility, less stress incurred during daily mailing verifications and provides some relief for those instances where one bad mailing in a given month doesn't create a financial hardship on the mailer.
