April 12, 2006 KISSIMMEE, FL — The U.S. Postal Service's new four-state barcode and OneCode solutions go live for all letter mail by Sept. 1, the agency announced at the 2006 National Postal Forum here this week. The four-state barcode lets business mailers track up to 1 billion pieces of mail at a time. The current system can ID about 1 million unique pieces. The barcodes also let mailers more easily request services such as address correction and confirmation of delivery and enable the USPS to process and deliver mail more efficiently, the agency said. OneCode Confirm will be available for First-Class and Standard mail letters starting Sept. 1. OneCode ACS will be available only for First-Class letters on that date; it will be available for Standard letters in late 2007 or early 2008. OneCode Confirm will be available for flats in late fall or early next year, and OneCode ACS will follow later.
The APWU has been notified that five Area Mail Processing (AMP) feasibility studies "have been placed on hold" indefinitely. An April 3 letter to APWU President William Burrus [PDF] indicated that the facilities involved are two in Illinois (Carbondale and Centralia), two in New Mexico (Las Cruces and Alamogordo), and one in Arkansas (Batesville). "While conducting the study," the USPS letter said, "the Postal Service determined that there are other factors associated with these studies or the community that need to be addressed before we can proceed with the study." The USPS has announced more than 50 consolidations or consolidation "feasibility studies" since Oct. 19, 2005. The Illinois studies were announced in December, and contemplated moving mail processing from these facilities to St. Louis. The Las Cruces and Alamogordo studies were announced Nov. 15, and Feb. 1, respectively, and anticipated transferring mail processing to El Paso, TX. The Batesville AMP was announced on Jan. 4, and concerned shifting mail-processing responsibilities to Little Rock. |
