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About autoZIP® Mail Services
A little History ...
autoZIP® Mail Services processes 1st, 2nd, or Standard (3rd) Class mailings for businesses and ensures that client mail goes out on time and at the lowest possible postage rate. Like the Post Office, autoZIP® cannot guarantee mail delivery times, but at least we releave you of the burden of dealing with the Post Office.
ZIP's owner/operator is Bill Seay. Having produced his own popular investment newsletters for over nine years, Bill knows mail. He's mailed millions of his own promo packages to highly targeted audiences. Bill started autoZIP® because he wanted to save money on his own postage.
Months of searching and learning what was possible (and impossible) with the USPS, especially under its, then newly-created automation compatible mailing procedures, convinced Bill that his newsletters should be mailed using automation compatible procedures. In his first year of using automation compatible, Bill saved over $50,000 on postage and drastically reduced his newsletter delivery times.
Bill was so caught up in mailing that he decided to start autoZIP® Mail Services in 1993. Since then, demand for mail processing at autoZIP® Mail Services has vastly exceeded his expectations, so much so that he discontinued his investment newsletters.
Bill's regular dealings with mailing services, list brokers, ad agencies, and the US Postal Service has provided autoZIP® Mail Services invaluable insights into the mail-services business. His experiences have lead to ZIP's top-notch customer service and responsiveness.
Let ZIP take the headaches out of your next mailing job...Call us today to discover how you can ZIP through your next mailing job. Or use our quick quote form at this site.
Snail Mail History ...
The USPS grew out of the Pony Express. Called the Post Office Department at the turn of the century, it relied on antiquated mail handling operations like the "pigeonhole" method of letter sorting, sort of like the way we feel when we wait in their lines at today's Post Office.
Widespread mechanization didn't happen until the mid-1950s, when they initiated letter sorters, facer-cancelers, automatic address readers, parcel sorters, advanced tray conveyors, flat sorters, letter mail coding, stamp-tagging techniques and a partridge in a pear tree.
In 1956 they introduced the first semi-automatic parcel sorting machine. In 1959, Mr. Pitney and Mr. Bowes started writing their advertising jingles after receiving the first volume order for facer-cancelers. By 1992, these machines were outdated and began to be replaced by advanced facer-canceler systems (AFCS) which could process more than 30,000 pieces of mail per hour. The machines electronically identify and separate prebarcoded mail, handwritten letters, and machine-imprinted pieces for faster processing through automation (is that like better living through chemicals?).
By the mid-1970s it was clear that cheaper, more efficient methods and equipment were needed if the Postal Service was to offset rising costs associated with growing mail volume; after all, it wasn't good p.r. to raise the price of stamps every year. To reduce the number of mail piece handlings, the Postal Service began to develop an expanded ZIP Code system in 1978.
The new code required new equipment to read an address and generate a bar code on the envelope. Once the letters got where they were going, a bar code sorter (BCS) sorted the mail by reading the bar code.
ZIP+4
Introduced in 1983, the ZIP+4 code adds a hyphen and four digits to the existing five-digit ZIP Code. The first five numbers identify an area of the country and delivery office to which mail is directed. The sixth and seventh numbers denote a delivery sector, which may be several blocks, a group of streets, a group of post office boxes, several office buildings, a single high-rise office building, a large apartment building, or a small geographic area. Whoa.
The last two numbers denote a delivery segment, which might be one floor of an office building, one side of a street between intersecting streets, specific departments in a firm, or a group of post office boxes.
The Age of Automation...and acronyms
A new generation of equipment has changed the way mail moves. multi-line optical character readers (MLOCRs) read an entire address on an envelope, spray a bar code on the envelope, then sort it at the rate of more than nine pieces per second. Other machines can read a bar code virtually anywhere on a letter. Advanced facer-canceler systems face, cancel, and sort mail. The remote bar coding system (RBCS) provides bar coding for handwritten script mail or mail that can't be read.
ZIP+4 code reduced the number of times that a piece of mail had to be handled. It also shortened the time carriers spent casing their mail (placing it in order of delivery). The MLOCRs reads the bar code and address, then constructs an 11-digit bar code using the Postal Service's National Directory and the last two digits of the street address. Then bar code sorters put the mail in sequence for delivery.
Until now, most of the emphasis in automation has been processing machine-imprinted mail. Letter mail with addresses that were handwritten or not machine-readable had to be processed manually or by a letter sorting machine. The RBCS now allows most of this mail to receive delivery point bar codes without being removed from the automated mail stream.
If the machines can't read an address, they spray an identifying code on the back of the envelope. Operators at a data entry site read the address on a video screen and key a code that allows a computer to determine the ZIP Code information. The results are transmitted back to a modified bar code sorter, which pulls the 11-digit ZIP Code information for that item, and sprays the correct barcode on the front of the envelope. The mail can then be automatically sorted.
Competition and Change
In 1991, overall mail volume dropped for the first time in 15 years. Volume rose only slightly in 1992, and the Postal Service narrowly avoided the first back-to-back declines in mail volume since the Great Depression.
The rise of fax machines, electronic communications, and other technologies offered alternatives for conveying bills, statements, and letters. Companies like FedEx and UPS set up alternate delivery networks. Mailers began shifting some of their expenditures to other forms of advertising, including cable television, telemarketing, direct mail, world wide web and email.
The USPS needed to become more competitive. They set an agenda to reduce bureaucracy and overhead, to improve service and customer satisfaction, and to stabilize postage rates. Did it work? We'll ask the Postmaster the next time postal rates go up.
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