The U.S. Postal Service is about to buy an deploy new automated mail acceptance verification equipment called MERLIN, short for Mail Evaluating Readability and Lookup Instrument, to reduce bulk mail handling time and costs at its Bulk Mail Entry Units (BMEUs).
A contract for the first 200 machines is expected to be awarded next month. Installation at BMEUs in the south will start next May,
Postal officials said that the equipment will be able to process 6,000 letters or 4,000 flats an hour and will reduce the mail verification procedure for bulk mailers to about 15 minutes from more than an hour.
They would not say how much they expected to spend for the equipment or identify the manufacturer beyond saying, “it’s a single-source matter.”
The equipment will verify barcode readability, address accuracy, mailpiece characteristics, pre-sort makeup, piece counts, tray label accuracy, and short paid mail while providing mailers with highly detailed diagnostic reports on their mailings that include tracking its progress through the mail stream as well as its actual delivery.
Those reports, said Michele Denny, marketing technology and channel management manager, “will provide mailers with feedback that will help them to better prepare their mailings to qualify for automation discounts.”
Development of the equipment was announced more than two years ago.
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