Patent Application
20110029429
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to postage indicia, postage payment and in particular to a system and method for processing a mailing postage label.
2. Discussion of Related Art
Centralized, internet-based postage systems have achieved wide acceptance since their conception in the mid-1990's. U.S. Pat. No. 6,005,945 to Whitehouse describes in detail internet-based postage systems and methods. In this model, rather than having independent, stand-alone electro-mechanical postage meters located throughout the country, an array of equivalent “virtual meters” is maintained in a database at a centralized server site. Each postage transaction uses a secure communication from the end user to the centralized server site. This type of system generates a centralized database of indicium and, in the case of shipping labels, associated tracking database that encompasses a whole mailing and shipping behavior of a plurality of users (e.g., hundreds of thousands of users). Another aspect of PC-based postage is the serialization of each postage indicium. Each indicium has a unique combination of account number and serial number (also referred to as “piece count” in the mailing industry). This idea is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,319,562 and reiterated in U.S. Pat. No. 6,005,945.
Returned goods represent a substantial percentage of packages shipped worldwide. The term “Reverse Logistics” has been coined to describe this sector of the shipping industry.
As shown in
Merchandise Return Labels are historically paid for via a USPS permit. For example, as shown in
To acquire a permit, the account holder must pay an annual fee for the permit, as well as an annual accounting fee. In addition, the account holder is charged a surcharge over normal rates for each package. Therefore, this is an expensive option for both the account holder and the Postal Service.
Another heavily used but highly manual system employed by the U.S. Post Office is the Express Mail Corporate Account (EMCA). Many mailers still use the original multi-part Express Mail form shown in
Express Mail goes through a formal acceptance process at the induction post office (PO). The PO employee will weigh the package and input the weight of the package, along with the delivery address and tracking barcode number into a retail Post Office terminal. Even if the Express Mail piece is dropped in a street mail box (blue box), the origin PO has a responsibility to enter this information. In the case of payment by EMCA, the PO employee will enter that along with the other information. However, there is no way to tell at the time of induction if the EMCA account is valid or it belongs to the mailer. Furthermore, the process is highly manual, with carbon copies being removed and saved by the induction PO as well as those responsible for final billing.
Some mailers have begun switching to a single ply version of the Express Mail label which can be computer generated. An example of a conventional computer generated mail express label is shown in
A prepaid return label printing solution for Priority and Express mail labels has been introduced by Endicia Internet Postage (circa 2004). The software logic essentially reverses the return address and delivery address of what would be normal Priority Mail label. It adds the legend “No Postage Stamp Necessary” and removes the postmark date (since the induction date will generally be unknown). The postage is properly computed by taking into account the postal zones.
This computer image may be emailed to a customer or displayed on a Web site, and provides a quick and easy way for a vendor to supply a prepaid return label. Because this is completely prepaid, there is no permit fee, no accounting fee, no delay at the receiving post office, and no manual accounting required.
The limitation of this type of return label is that the postage has been prepaid by the PC postage account holder. If this label is not used, the postage is essentially wasted. Therefore, this label concept is well suited for customer interactions where the merchant is quite certain the customer will be returning the goods. These types of customers are generally easy to identify by either call center or Web site interactions. However, the limitation remains as the postage is consumed when the postage label is printed.
Those unfamiliar with the operational of National Posts may question why the revenue collection for return shipping labels is such a difficult problem. National Posts or Postal Services like USPS have operated with a prepaid model for hundreds of years. However, in the prepaid return shipping labels, each mail piece has to provide an indication that the postage has already been paid via some method such as stamps, meter mark, PC postage indicium, permit account, EMCA, etc. There is no “after the fact” billing. National Post delivery networks are generally point to point, as opposed to FedEx® or UPS™. That is, if a package originates in San Francisco (SF), Calif. and is going to Los Angeles (LA), Calif., the package will likely be trucked or flown directly from SF to LA.
In contrast, FedEx® and UPS™ operate hub systems where all packages flow though a single hub facility. With a hub system, one can be assured that each and every package will be processed by automated scanning systems at the hub, and the processing scans will result in the final billing to the shipper. Hence, the same SF to LA package, if for instance handled by FedEx®, would be flown to Memphis, Tenn. on the first evening and then flown from Memphis to LA the next morning.
The present invention addresses various issues relating to the above and other issues with conventional approaches.
An aspect of the present invention is to provide a method of processing a mailing label through a postal service that requires an account that can be charged for generating the mailing label. The method includes charging or deducting a fictitiously fundable or chargeable account to enable generation of a mailing label for a mail piece. The mailing label includes a tracking indicium associated with the fictitiously fundable or chargeable account. The method further includes receiving the tracking indicium scanned from the mailing label on the mail piece when the mail piece is inducted in the mail stream or during transit of the mail piece in the mail stream, and charging or deducting funds from an actually fundable or chargeable account based upon the received scanned tracking indicium.
Another aspect of the present invention is to provide a method of processing a mailing label having a tracking code through a postal service that requires an account that can be charged for generating the mailing label. The method includes receiving a client mailer identification number from a postal service, and charging or deducting a fictitiously fundable or chargeable account to enable generation of a mailing label for a mail piece. The mailing label includes a tracking code associated with the fictitiously fundable or chargeable account and the tracking code includes the client mailer identification number. The method further includes receiving a file containing the tracking code scanned from the mailing label on the mail piece when the mail piece is inducted in the mail stream or during transit of the mail piece in the mail stream.
Yet another aspect of the present invention is to provide a system of processing a mailing label through a postal service that requires an account that can be charged for generating the mailing label. The system includes a memory configured to store a fictitiously fundable or chargeable account, the fictitiously fundable account being useable to generate a mailing label for a mail piece. The mailing label includes a tracking indicium associated with the fictitiously fundable or chargeable account. The system further includes a processor configured to: (i) receive the tracking indicium scanned from the mailing label on the mail piece when the mail piece is inducted in the mail stream or during transit of the mail piece in the mail stream; and (ii) generate an input to charge or deduct funds from an actually fundable or chargeable account based upon the received scanned tracking indicium.
Although the various steps of the method of providing or printing postage stamps are described in the above paragraphs as occurring in a certain order, the present application is not bound by the order in which the various steps occur. In fact, in alternative embodiments, the various steps can be executed in an order different from the order described above or otherwise herein.
These and other objects, features, and characteristics of the present invention, as well as the methods of operation and functions of the related elements of structure and the combination of parts and economies of manufacture, will become more apparent upon consideration of the following description and the appended claims with reference to the accompanying drawings, all of which form a part of this specification, wherein like reference numerals designate corresponding parts in the various figures. It is to be expressly understood, however, that the drawings are for the purpose of illustration and description only and are not intended as a definition of the limits of the invention. As used in the specification and in the claims, the singular form of “a”, “an”, and “the” include plural referents unless the context clearly dictates otherwise.
In the accompanying drawings:
An embodiment of the present disclosure focuses on the extension of the internet postage model and revises the mechanism, and particularly the timing, of customer payments for use of the postal delivery service. One immediate use of an embodiment of the present invention is in the area of “reply postage.” However, it should be appreciated that, the present method and system is also applicable to all types of postage transactions. According to one embodiment, the method or system of the present invention can create a mail piece (e.g., a shipping label) with a serialized indicium associated with a given customer account, but with an assigned indicium having a value of $0.00. When the mail piece is inducted into the mail stream, an operational scan or operational scans of postage barcode and/or tracking indicium are reported back to the centralized postage system. The operational scan(s) can optionally identify the induction point and the delivery point. The class of mail is typically known and established at the time of printing the mail piece. The weight is either recorded at induction, measured during an in process weigh/scan operation, or irrelevant in the case of using weight-independent mail class (e.g., an Express Mail Flat Rate Box). When the scan information is received by the centralized postage system operation, the correct postage can then be computed and charged to or deducted from the end-user's postage account.
This method and system can replace the manual process used by the postal service for reply mail. For the U.S. Postal Service, the method and system described herein can be used to replace the Express Mail Corporate Account (EMCA) and the Merchandize Return Label Service (MRLS) programs. The method and system described herein allow, for example, the creation and distribution of numerous serialized shipping labels without actually incurring the upfront cost of the postage indicium. As a result, this can provide cost savings for the shipper (e.g., Amazon.com) as the mailing label does have a monetary value attached or assigned to it until it is used in the course of shipping a package or sending mail from point A to point B. The method and system can also allow for pre-addressed labels, or labels where the destination address is filled out by hand while a person is on travel. The process does not deduct or charge actual funds from the customer's account until the mail piece is actually being processed by the postal service (e.g., Post Office).
In accordance with one embodiment, a centralized postage system is employed to create reply labels similar to the reply labels shown in
If and when the reply label is inducted in the mail stream (depicted in
When mail stream information is received at the centralized postage system of the postage vendor (e.g., in a form of a FTP file), the postage vendor computes the appropriate postage cost for this transaction, at S60 and creates another transaction against the mailer's account, at S70. This results in no printed output, but simply adds another indicium record to the account's postage history.
The return labels can be pre-addressed (as shown for example in
In this embodiment, billing by the postal service or authority can be accomplished automatically based on the normal in-process and delivery scans. The creator of these labels can produce them without any immediate financial impact, as he or she is only charged for postage when the label is actually used or detected in the mail stream.
In another embodiment, the method or system of the present invention can create a mail piece (e.g., a return shipping label) with a serialized postage value indicium associated with a fictitiously funded account or an account with faux or fictitious money.
A user interface implemented by software executed by a computer 32 of the account holder allows the account holder to create a mail label 34 by using a printer 36 connected to the computer 32, at S120. The mail label (e.g., a return shipping label) 34 may include a postage value indicium (e.g., an IBI indicium such as a 2D barcode) 34A. The mail label may include a tracking code (e.g., in a form of a barcode such as a 1D barcode) 34B. The postage value indicium 34A may include a serialized indicium (e.g., a piece count). The postage value indicium 34A may include a portion of the tracking barcode 34B. For example, in one embodiment, postage value indicium 34A may include the last 9-digits of the tracking barcode 34B. In this case, scanning the tracking barcode 34B and/or the postage value indicium 34A can identify the transaction that created the label. Hence, the tracking barcode 34B, or the postage value indicium 34A, or both may constitute a tracking information or tracking indicium and can be used to detect the label 34 and thus the associated mail piece in the mail stream. The tracking barcode 34B can be a “delivery confirmation” barcode in USPS First Class or Priority Mail or “an express mail tracking code” in USPS Express Mail. The postage value indicium (e.g., IBI indicium) 34A may indicate a postage amount (e.g., $4.50). This postage amount is drawn from the fictitiously fundable account, i.e., the account with faux or fictitious money. In other words, the postage amount (e.g., $4.50) is not drawn from an account reflective of real money. The fictitiously fundable account can be loaded with a desired, fictitious, sum of funds, such as for example $100,000. The postage amount ($4.50) is debited from this sum of funds in the fictitiously funded account (e.g., $100,000) to “pay” for the postage of the mailing label (e.g., a return mailing or shipping label).
In this way, when the mail piece is inducted into the mail stream (represented in
In one embodiment, the fictitiously funded account is credited with the postage value (e.g., $4.50) but with fictitious or faux money. In another embodiment, the fictitiously funded account is not credited with the postage value (e.g., $4.50). In this case, the amount of faux money in the fictitiously funded account will decrease with usage of postage by the user. At one point, however, the fictitiously funded account may need to be replenished with fictitious or faux money to avoid a negative amount of funds in the fictitiously funded account as the postal service requires that the fictitiously funded account carries an amount of funds that is greater than zero in order to be able to print indicia with a certain postage value on a mailing label (e.g., a return mail label).
For the U.S. Postal Service, the method and system described herein could replace, for example, the Merchandize Return Label Service (MRLS) programs. An example using a mortgage application may be used to illustrate one, non-limiting use of the method and system described herein. For example, a mortgage company (i.e., the user having a real account and a fictitiously funded account set up at the centralized postage system of the postage vendor) can send numerous mortgage application packets for a mortgage to potential customers. For example, on one hand the mortgage company (the user) will pay upfront with real money withdrawn from its real account (i.e., an account having real money) for the postage of each of the mailing labels of each mortgage application packet to mail the mortgage applications. On the other hand, however, the mortgage company (the user) will pay with fictitious or faux money withdrawn from the fictitiously funded account for a return label included with the mortgage application packet. In this way, the mortgage company will not incur any mailing costs until a return label is used by the potential customer of the mortgage company (i.e., until the potential customer of the mortgage company returns a completed application packet). The other return labels that are not inducted in the mail stream (because the applicant never completes and returns the packet) will not be charged to the mortgage company's real account, as they are printed with faux money. Only a return label that is actually used to return a completed application packet to the mortgage company (or its associates) is detected in the mail stream and thus is associated with the mortgage company's real account as described in detail above.
In one embodiment, in order to determine which scanned tracking indicia (e.g., in a form of a number, a barcode, or other indicia) among a plurality of scanned tracking codes 34B and/or indicia 34A in a plurality of a labels should trigger a payment at the centralized postage system 30 of the postage vendor, a file management system and method is used to determine which label(s) with tracking code(s) are created and “paid for” by an account funded with fictitious money. In one embodiment, the management system and method can perform the above by logging every tracking code 34B which is created using the account funded with fictitious money into a database and checking every postal service scan event by comparing every postal service scan event to the logged tracking codes 34B in the database to determine if a scanned tracking barcode is one created using the account funded with fictitious money.
In another embodiment, the management system and method can perform the above by issuing tracking codes with a specific range of numbers. For example, when a label is created using the account funded with fictitious money, the system issues tracking codes from a subset of the postage vendor's tracking codes. This allows a faster identification of a scan event that scans a tracking code “paid for” by a fictitious account. Rather than checking the whole database of all the postage vendor's tracking codes, the system determines if a specific tracking code “paid for” by the fictitious account falls within a specified range or sub-set of tracking codes. For example, this can be implemented for express mail labels of the USPS.
In another embodiment, the system and method can determine which scanned tracking codes or tracking barcodes 34B among a plurality of scanned tracking codes or tracking barcodes 34B in a plurality of labels should trigger a payment at the centralized postage system 30, by using a postal service issued mail identification number (MID) in which a specific MID number is assigned for labels 34 paid by the account with fictitious money. In one embodiment, the MID is a 6 to 9 digit number which is used in the delivery confirmation type tracking code 34B.
In yet another embodiment, the system and method can determine which scanned tracking codes or tracking barcodes 34B among a plurality of scanned tracking codes or tracking barcodes 34B in a plurality of labels should trigger a payment at the centralized postage system 30, by using a postal service issued general purpose mail identification number (MID) and/or a client mailer identification number (CMID). The general purpose MID number assigned to the postage vendor by the postal service can be used to construct the tracking code 34B. Alternatively or in addition, the unique CMID number can be assigned to a given postage account opened at the centralized postage system 30 of the postage vendor. The CMID number can also be used in constructing tracking codes 34B for that given postage account. This unique postage account with the CMID number can be, for example, a postage account of a client of the postage vendor. Alternatively, this postage account with the CMID number can be an account of the postage vendor reserved for a particular use such as, for example, reserved for labels with tracking codes “paid for” by the account funded with fictitious money. In any case, the postage vendor uploads into or sends to a computer system of the postal service (e.g., USPS) 42, a postage vendor file containing all tracking codes of all labels created during a certain time period (e.g., one day, two days, 12 hours, 6 hours, etc.). The uploaded postage vendor file has a header record containing the general purpose MID number assigned to the postage vendor by the postal service. On this file are logged all the tracking codes used during that time period. The tracking codes recorded in this postage vendor file contain at least the MID number assigned to the postage vendor. In this way, the postal service (e.g., USPS) knows that all the tracking codes in this file with the header MID number “belong” to the postage vendor.
When the postal service 42 detects a label having a tracking code containing the MID number during a field scan event, the postal service 42 records that tracking code 34B into a first file (e.g., an FTP file) that the postage vendor can retrieve or download. Alternatively, instead of the first file being retrieved or downloaded by the postage provider 30, the postal service can send the first file to the postage provider. In addition, at least a portion (i.e., one or more) of the tracking codes recorded in the postage vendor file may further contain the CMID number. When a label having a tracking code containing the CMID number (in addition to the general purpose MID number) is detected during a field scan event, the postal service 42 records the detected tracking code including the CMID number into a second file (e.g. a second FTP file). The second file containing the tracking code including the CMID number can be retrieved by or sent to a client of the postage vendor. Alternatively, the second file (e.g., a second FTP file) containing the tracking code including the CMID number can be retrieved by the postage vendor. In this way, the postage vendor can easily distinguish the scanned tracking codes having the general purpose MID number from the scanned tracking codes having, in addition to the MID number, the CMID number such as scanned tracking codes paid for by the account funded with fictitious money. In this way, scanned tracking codes that are paid for by the account funded by fictitious money can be isolated for further processing as described in the above paragraphs.
When tracking codes ID1, ID2, ID3 and ID4 generated by the postal vendor and including the MID number 50 of the postage vendor are detected by the postal service 42, the tracking codes ID1, ID2, ID3 and ID4 are recorded in a first file FTP1 in postal service database 56. When, for example, tracking codes ID1 and ID2 in return labels 34 associated with the mailing campaign of the mortgage company and including a CMID number indicating that the label is paid for using an account funded with fictitious money is detected by the postal service 42, the tracking codes ID1 and ID2 are recorded in second file FTP2 in postal service database 56. The first file FTP1 and the second file FTP2 are sent to or can be downloaded by the postage vendor central computer 30. Since the second file FTP2 only contains the tracking codes of labels paid for by the account funded by fictitious money, the scanned tracking codes that are paid for by the account funded by fictitious money are thus automatically segregated for further processing. The segregation between the tracking codes paid for by real money and fictitious money is accomplished automatically by the postal service.
In this way each mail label (e.g., return mail label) paid for by the account funded with fictitious money detected in the mail stream can be accounted for and charged to the account of the user funded with real money.
Therefore, the method and system described herein allow, for example, the creation and distribution of numerous serialized shipping labels without actually incurring the upfront cost of the postage indicium, as the postage indicium is printed with a fictitious monetary value. The fictitious monetary value is translated into a real monetary value by withdrawing funds from a user's real account funded with real money only when the serialized shipping label is detected in the mail stream. As a result, this can provide cost savings for the shipper (e.g., the mortgage company) as the mailing label does not have a real monetary mailing cost for the shipper until it is used for shipping a package or sending mail from point A to point B.
The method and system according to another embodiment also allow for pre-addressed labels, or labels where the destination address is filled out by hand, for example while a person is on travel.
In one embodiment, a software application is employed by the user to access a web service in the server 100 to purchase and print postage labels. In one embodiment, the software application can reside in the user's personal computer 102. The software application can be obtained from the postage vendor or other vendors having a business relationship with the postage vendor. For example, the software application can be downloaded from an internet webpage of the postage vendor (e.g., downloaded from the server 100). Alternatively, the software application can be obtained in a storage medium such as a CDROM, a USB flash memory or a PCMCIA memory card. The software application can be obtained free of charge or for a fee. Once the software application is installed in a personal computer 102 of the user, the software application is ready to be used by the user to purchase postage labels.
By personal computer 102, it is meant that any computing device capable of running the software application and providing for the user access to the internet 104 can be used, such as, but not limited to, a server, a desktop computer, a laptop computer, a handheld computing device, etc. Alternatively, the user does not need to install the software application on the personal computer 102. For example, the software application can be a web-based application and can be executed in the computer server 100 associated with the postage vendor.
The system is configured to implement the method or methods described in detail in the above paragraphs. In one embodiment, a real account is established at the server 100 for the user. Postage can be billed to the real account for mailing of a mail piece with the printed mailing label. In addition, a fictitiously funded account is further established for the user, the fictitiously funded account having fictitious money. The mailing label is provided with a serial or tracking indicium associated with the fictitiously funded account. For example, the mailing label is printed using printer 106 of the user. When the mailing label having the serial or tracking indicium printed thereon is inducted into the mail stream, the postal service scans the mailing label and captures information on the mailing label. The captured information is sent to computer system 108 of the postal service (e.g., USPS) which in turn sends the information to the server 100 associated with the postage provider. The server 100 associated with the postage provider receives information scanned from the mailing label on the mail piece. The processor 101A in the computer server processes the received information and deducts funds from the real account of the user based upon the received scanned information. The term “tracking indicium” refers to an indicium, such as for example a barcode, or other scannable image containing data, provided on the mailing label to allow, inter alia, a user, the postal service or the postage vendor or other entity having interest in a mail piece to track the mail piece associated with the mailing label.
As it can be appreciated from the above, in one embodiment, the method and system described herein can be similar to a UPS™ or FedEx® type of billing system which is more or less based on a “bill-on-performance model” but using the existing geographically distributed resources of a national postal service such as USPS. This allows, for example, the USPS to offer billing protocols which are preferred by shippers but without requiring the USPS to invest capital in new systems to handle billing in a point to point network.
In some embodiments, application programs for performing methods in accordance with embodiments of the invention can be embodied as program products in a computer such as a personal computer or server or in a distributed computing environment comprising a plurality of computers. The computer may include, for example, a desktop computer, a laptop computer, a handheld computing device such as a PDA, etc. The computer program products may include a computer readable medium or storage medium or media having instructions stored thereon used to program a computer to perform the methods described above. Examples of suitable storage medium or media include any type of disk including floppy disks, optical disks, DVDs, CD ROMs, magnetic optical disks, RAMs, EPROMs, EEPROMs, magnetic or optical cards, hard disk, flash card (e.g., a USB flash card), PCMCIA memory card, smart card, or other media. Alternatively, a portion or the whole computer program product can be downloaded from a remote computer or server via a network such as the internet, an ATM network, a wide area network (WAN) or a local area network.
Stored on one or more of the computer readable media, the program may include software for controlling both the hardware of a general purpose or specialized computer or processor. The software also enables the computer or processor to interact with a user via output devices such as a graphical user interface, head mounted display (HMD), etc. The software may also include, but is not limited to, device drivers, operating systems and user applications.
Alternatively, instead or in addition to implementing the methods described above as computer program product(s) (e.g., as software products) embodied in a computer, the method described above can be implemented as hardware in which for example an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) can be designed to implement the method or methods of the present invention.
Although the various steps of the method of providing or printing postage indicia are described in the above paragraphs as occurring in a certain order, the present application is not bound by the order in which the various steps occur. In fact, in alternative embodiments, the various steps can be executed in an order different from the order described above.
Although the invention has been described in detail for the purpose of illustration based on what is currently considered to be the most practical and preferred embodiments, it is to be understood that such detail is solely for that purpose and that the invention is not limited to the disclosed embodiments, but, on the contrary, is intended to cover modifications and equivalent arrangements that are within the spirit and scope of the appended claims. For example, it is to be understood that the present invention contemplates that, to the extent possible, one or more features of any embodiment can be combined with one or more features of any other embodiment.
Furthermore, since numerous modifications and changes will readily occur to those of skill in the art, it is not desired to limit the invention to the exact construction and operation described herein. Accordingly, all suitable modifications and equivalents should be considered as falling within the spirit and scope of the invention.
The present Patent Application is based on and claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/229,181 filed on Jul. 28, 2009 and U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/291,499 filed on Dec. 31, 2009, the entire content of each is hereby incorporated by reference.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 61229181 | Jul 2009 | US | |
| 61291499 | Dec 2009 | US |
