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Information Technology

FAST National Deployment Begins in July

The Facility Access and Shipment Tracking (FAST) system national deployment to replace the Drop Shipment Appointment System (DSAS) will begin in July. The phased deployment begins with the New York Metro Area, with all areas phased in over the next 5 months.

Deployment graph.

Customers drop shipping mail into facilities in the New York Metro area will start scheduling appointments in FAST on July 11, 2005 for drops starting July 25, 2005. Please refer to http://ribbs.usps.gov; click FAST/Surface Visibility, to obtain the full deployment schedule.

FAST Customer Readiness

Customer Registration in PostalOne!

DSAS Logon IDs will not work with FAST. All drop shippers, including those who make appointments by telephone, MUST register for a FAST ID through PostalOne! at www.usps.com/postalone. Customers who already have a PostalOne! account and also need access to FAST must register by calling the PostalOne! Customer Care Center at 1-800-522-9085.

Recurring Appointment Submission

All drop shippers who currently have recurring appointments MUST reapply using PS Form 6241, Recurring Appointment Request, available at http://www.usps.com/forms/welcome.htm; click All Online PDF Forms in Numeric Order, then PS Form 6241 (PDF). Recurring appointment requests should be submitted to the Postal ServiceTM 3 weeks before the facility's scheduled start date, for example June 20 for facilities in the NY Metro Area. Once a recurring appointment is scheduled in FAST, it will no longer be necessary to renew the request every 6 months.

- Logistics Systems, Operations, 6-9-05

FASTforward MLC to Be Retired

Effective September 30, 2005, FASTforward Mailing List Correction (MLC)® will be retired and replaced with NCOALink TM. In continuing its commitment to provide mailers with cost-effective and secure technology, the National Customer Support Center (NCSC) is accepting and processing applications from current FASTforward MLC licensees for the new NCOALink technology.

Since full implementation in October 2004, NCOALink has been successfully providing increased data security, protection of customer information privacy, and ease of use for its licensees. Its data security enables it to be used by more mailers, more often, and more conveniently. Its innovative design also protects customer information privacy by limiting what can be seen. With the increased data security and customer information privacy available with NCOALink, the use of this important tool by mailers is growing rapidly.

FASTforward MLC licensees must complete the application process to become licensed for the new NCOALink technology. Many licensees have already taken advantage of the opportunity and applied for the NCOALink license. New NCOALink licensees will benefit from now having 18 months of change-of-address data available, a valuable increase over the 13 months of data previously provided under FASTforward. In addition, licensees will enjoy ownership of all hardware and the discontinuation of the FASTforward MLC "black box," which has been rendered obsolete with the conversion to NCOALink.

- Address Management,
Intelligent Mail and Address Quality, 6-9-05