Postal prognostications

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, April 1, 1992 by Frank Power

The same computer technology advances that make it easier for households and businesses to interface with one another will enable the Postal Service to develop innovative advances in processing and delivering mail in the 21st century.

Contrary to many forecasts, the country will not turn into a paperless society in the next century. Nor will the Postal Service go the way of the Pony Express - a prediction that has occurred with every technological advance since the 19th century, from the invention of the telegraph and telephone, to radio and television, to fax and computers.

Although a number of electronic innovations - such as videophones, on-line databases and personalized information retrieval systems - will become a part of some homes and offices in the near future, that new technology will account for only a small percentage. The majority of the nation's population (projected at 300 million) will still depend on the U.S. Postal Service for delivery of letters, magazines and selected ad material.

New technologies will also allow mailers to know where their mail is at all times. If a magazine mailing is delayed, customers will be able to dial a Postal Service center and locate the mailing. This service will not only benefit large mailers, but also maximize service to customers.

Mis-sorts, the bane of the early days of electronics processing, will have been eliminated by 2012. An odd, undecipherable handwritten address will probably still give the system pause, but service standards will be met 98.6 percent of the time!

The latest in computerized mail-processing equipment will be established throughout a network of mail-processing centers where the mail will enter a continuous automated stream. Barcoding will become even more convenient, as most personal computers will automatically generate the proper codes for envelopes, flats, parcels and magazines. For those who still prefer to write by hand, sophisticated automated scanners, in concert with optical character-recognition software, will decipher the handwriting, generate the proper barcode, and send the letter efficiently to a dispatch point.

Barcodes will remain a key component in automation. as barcodes expand, information contained in each one will be important to the routing of the piece, increasing efficiency of delivery. The value of this technology is incalculable to mailers, and is likely to be an important component in most of the sophisticated database marketing efforts in the future.

Instant billing

Microcomputers, small enough to fit in a shirt pocket, will monitor the mail at specified intervals. Similarly, computers will be used by business mailers to monitor their shipments from the point of entry to the final delivery office. Volumes could be automatically tallied and transmitted to the nearest postal facility, where they will be cross-checked with postal figures upon the mail's entry into the system. Billing will be done instantly and automatically. This information exchange helps both mailers and the Postal Service to check routinely on service performance, while managing routing of the mail in anticipation of fluctuations in volume. The result: savings of time and labor costs, which in turn will keep customers satisfied and postage rate stable.

Speaking of rates, although nobody can tract the future of the economy, postage rates will continue to be one of the best values for the money, since new technology will increase efficiencies and reduce costs. First-class postage, for example, is still likely to cost less than a candy bar or the daily newspaper.

Technology will be behind many of the advances and efficiencies in the Postal Service of the future. But what can't be automated or predicted, this or any other year, is the weather. Mother Nature will continue to create challenges. But as has been true for over 250 years, thousands of men and women, the heart of the Postal Service, will meet their appointed rounds - whether she is operating a barcode sorter inside a mail processing center or he is slogging through snow on a country lane.

We ('ll) deliver!