PRC Endorses New Subscription Mail Tracking Service

The Postal Rate Commission has endorsed Confirm, a new mail tracking system that the U.S. Postal Service is proposing.

The PRC, noting widespread mailer support for the proposal, filed a decision last Friday with the USPS Board of Governors, recommending the adoption of the three-tier mail tracking subscription service as soon as possible.

Postal governors, meeting in Washington next week, are expected to authorize postal officials to begin offering the service later this year.

Base charges for the service would run between $2,000 and $10,000.

A subscription for the three-month service would cost $2,000. A subscription for the 12-month Gold service would be $4,500, and a 12-month subscription for the Platinum service would run $10,000. Each subscription could be enhanced for additional costs ranging from $500 to $750, depending on the level of enhancement.

According to both the USPS and the PRC, the new service, which uses a new barcode known as Planet Codes, will enable mailers to track both the processing and delivery of their outgoing and incoming automatable Standard mail, packages, periodicals and first class mail.

Mail pieces with Planet Codes will run through existing mail processing equipment. The machines will generate a detailed record of the mail’s movement, so subscribers will know when a customer is about to receive a bill, notice, offer or a publication, according to both the USPS and PRC.

That record, they said, will reportedly provide direct marketers with accurate data that will enable them to improve the effectiveness of their mailing operations, such as fine-tuning their drop-shipping plans, staffing and cash flow while helping them to “closely coordinate marketing efforts to increase [direct mail] response rates.

Postal officials also said the information would help them to evaluate and improve mail-processing operations.

The PRC, in recommending implementation of the service, said it was beneficial to both mailers and the USPS because the underlying technology for the service may spawn “additional uses over time leading to other service enhancements with the potential for improving mailer and postal service operational efficiencies.”