The U.S. Postal Service has signed a multi-year ordering agreement with Motorola for a new generation of hand-held scanning devices, which helps the USPS track mail.

The USPS estimates it will spend about $300 million for these devices during the three-year term of this contract.

The scanners will be able to read both the four-state barcode and two-dimensional (2-d) codes, according to the USPS. The four-state barcode, which the postal service is currently testing, can hold nearly three times as much data as the current POSTNET code the USPS uses to sort and deliver the mail. The 2-d code, currently used today in PC Postage, can contain considerably more data than a barcode in the same amount of space.

The U.S. Postal Service has signed a multi-year ordering agreement with Motorola for a new generation of hand-held scanning devices, which helps the USPS track mail.

The USPS estimates it will spend about $300 million for these devices during the three-year term of this contract.

The scanners will be able to read both the four-state barcode and two-dimensional (2-d) codes, according to the USPS. The four-state barcode, which the postal service is currently testing, can hold nearly three times as much data as the current POSTNET code the USPS uses to sort and deliver the mail. The 2-d code, currently used today in PC Postage, can contain considerably more data than a barcode in the same amount of space.