[Infowarrior] - USPS Tracking: A New Privacy issue?

[Richard Forno]

(wonder what newfangled 'homeland security' applications will be included in
this USPS-tracking system.........rf)


Postal Service Sees Simplicity in 31 Digits

By Stephen Barr
Monday, February 18, 2008; D01

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/17/AR2008021701
801_pf.html


The U.S. Postal Service is launching a 31-digit bar code that will permit
business customers -- advertisers, catalogue and credit card companies -- to
track their mail, from the drop-off at a post office to delivery at a home
or office.

The project is called Intelligent Mail, and it holds the potential to let
companies know if customers are telling the truth when they say the check is
in the mail.

"Intelligent mail is like having a GPS system for mail," Postmaster General
John E . Potter said when he announced the project last year.

Potter has pushed since the summer of 2002 for a way to track commercial
mail as it travels through the postal network. The effort is on the fast
track now, and the Postal Service plans to launch the system in January
2009. A federal notice has been published, and the public has until Thursday
to file comments and concerns.

Big bucks are riding on the bar code. The nation's business mailers qualify
for less-expensive mail rates if they bundle their letters, packages and
magazines in ways that reduce sorting and delivery time for the post office.
Bar codes are the key to getting the discounted postage rates, currently
valued at about $18 billion.

With the new bar code, companies will be able to track mail delivery and
know when their customers got a bill, solicitation or product, and the
Postal Service will have another way of checking that mail is being
delivered on time.

Companies also will be given a chance to buy data collected by the post
office that will give them insights into how customers respond to
advertising and marketing. A company, for instance, can buy a television or
newspaper ad to tout a new product, follow up with an announcement in the
mail and get a sense of how well the ad is connecting with customers.

The data, postal executive Thomas G. Day said, should help companies answer
such questions as: "When I get it to you on this day, what is your response?
Do you actually go to my Web site that day? Do you go to my retail store
that day or within a day or two?"

The Postal Service's primary interest, however, is in using the intelligent
mail bar code to bring more efficiency to its operations and increase the
value of mail for companies that are tempted to hawk their wares through
e-mail and Internet ads.

At the start, the bar code project involved officials in the Postal
Service's technology, engineering, operations and marketing divisions, who
were basically working on their piece of the project without much
coordination. Potter quickly saw that such a fragmented approach carried too
much risk.

"Jack was the visionary here," said Day, senior vice president for
intelligent mail and address quality. "He understood he needed a particular
focus on this to drive it forward, because it was such a cross-functional
activity."

Although some commercial mailers sending letters, magazines and catalogues
have been using the intelligent mail bar code for the last two years on a
voluntary basis, the Postal Service intends to make the 31-digit code
mandatory next January.

Eleven of the digits will show the destination Zip code. Companies also can
use from six to nine digits to identify themselves as the sender and assign
a number to each of their customers.

The new bar code will consolidate information carried in other bar codes
used by the Postal Service for the last two decades. Those codes are used
for certified mail, for automated sorting of letters to the exact sequence
used by the letter carrier when delivering mail, to identify the sender of a
piece of mail and to provide certain services.

With all those codes, it "was beginning to be a pretty ugly-looking piece of
mail," Day said. "It just had a lot of stuff on it, and it was getting to be
complex, in managing the systems. So the vision was, let's get out of this
multiple code environment and down to a single code."

The mailing industry is looking forward to the new bar code, said John
Campo, vice president for postal relations at Pitney Bowes, which
specializes in mail technology. "The service that the Postal Service
provides is not always consistent across the board, and this will allow them
to focus on areas of weak performance as compared to their stellar
performance," he said.

Under current plans, large volume mailers, such as credit card companies,
retailers and magazines, will send the Postal Service an electronic
manifest, describing what they will be mailing. They also will make an
electronic appointment, so the Postal Service knows which mail center will
be getting the mass mailing and at what time.

The new bar code will be on trays, sacks and tubs used to hold mail in
postal facilities and on large pallets and containers used for shipping
mail. Mail handlers, using handheld scanners, will be able to more quickly
direct mail to the right truck for the right destination. They will get an
electronic alert if the manifest suggests mail did not get put on a truck.

As for the general public, Day said he is uncertain as to whether
individuals see any need for real-time tracking of first-class letters,
noting that the Postal Service already provides delivery confirmation for
packages and that most bill payments and birthday cards arrive on time.

"The question is, do we need to build an intelligent mail, unique solution
for individual customers?" he said. "We can. I don't yet see the reason to
do it. But if the demand is there, we'll build it."

Stephen Barr's e-mail address isbarrs at washpost.com.