6-2.6 Verification Process

Seamless Acceptance verification is a six-step process as shown in
Exhibit 6-2.6.

Exhibit 6-2.6 

Seamless Acceptance Verification Process

1. First, mailers prepare their mail with a unique IMb to each mailpiece and submit the eDoc to PostalOne!. A unique barcode used must be unique for at least 45 days. The only exception is that a Postal Wizard mailing can use a MID, with the same serial number on every piece in the mailing. After completing mail preparation, mailers upload their eDoc to PostalOne!. The eDoc created by a mailer participating in Seamless Acceptance has the same information in it as a mailer participating in Full-Service.

Mailers must submit all barcoded pieces in the eDoc for all mailings, including those that are full-rate and single-piece. This is a significant change from non-Seamless Acceptance mailings. Every mailpiece with a barcode has to be documented in PostalOne!.

2. Next, PostalOne! auto-finalizes Seamless Acceptance electronic postage statements on the Postage Statement Mailing Date as detailed.
3. Then, the mailing may be sampled using a handheld scanner to collect mailing characteristics that are not collected during automated mail processing. These characteristics include information about the postage payment method, piece weight, nonprofit eligibility, mailpiece content, mail class, and processing category of the mailing. The information collected in the sample is used later in the process to check the mail preparation quality. A complete sample includes one container, three handling units from that container, and 30 pieces from the container (10 pieces from each handling unit).
4. After that, the mail is processed for delivery. As the mail runs across mail processing equipment (MPE), the MPE scans the IMb and sends information about where the mailpiece was, when it was processed, and what operation it was run on to the Seamless Acceptance program. Using information from the MPE for verification allows Seamless Acceptance to check almost every mailpiece for quality problems.
5. After being processed, the mailing is verified. The information provided by the mailer in their eDoc is compared to the information gathered from sampling and MPE. This comparison lets Seamless Acceptance perform the equivalent of the key manual verifications performed today. Each verification has a different error threshold that identifies significant mail quality and preparation errors in mail quality. If a verification crosses an error threshold, the mailer may be charged additional postage. Errors are measured over an entire calendar month for comparison to the error thresholds.
6. Finally, the results of the verifications from Seamless Acceptance are reported on the Mailer Scorecard. All of the Seamless Acceptance data is located under the Seamless tab of the Mailer Scorecard. The Mailer Scorecard displays information for the current month to-date and allows mailers and Acceptance Employees to review mailer results from previous months. Mailers and Acceptance Employees can further investigate verification results by “drilling down” into more detailed reports. The additional reports allow mailers and Acceptance Employees to view individual error data, thus providing a clearer picture of what occurred. Additional information on the Mailer Scorecard is available in the Guide to Streamlined Mail Acceptance for Letters and Flats Reporting, found here: https://postalpro.usps.com/MailAcceptanceReportingGuide.