4-4 Closeout Procedures

4-4.1 Finalizing Appointments

Postal Service personnel are responsible for completing destination entry information on PS Form 8125. Once the drop shipment has entered the destination facility, the appointment process must be finalized within 4 hours for facilities with access to FAST and 1 business day for facilities without access to FAST.

1. Operations personnel: Platform personnel at plants are responsible for entering drop shipment arrival data into Transportation Information Management Evaluation System (TIMES) or the Intelligent Mail Device (IMD) at Surface Visibility (SV) sites. At NDCs, the vehicle operator assistant uses Yard Management System (YMS) to track the gate arrival and unloading of drop shipments, and SV is used to track door arrival and unloading. Appointment data in SV, TIMES, and YMS are then automatically updated into FAST. Close out of drop shipment arrival and unloading data must be finalized within 1 business day of the shipment’s unload completion. Facilities without TIMES or SV must enter appointment closeout information directly into FAST.
2. Facility FAST coordinator: When close-out data are missing or incorrect in SV, TIMES, or YMS, the facility FAST coordinator must reconcile appointment data against the PS Form 8125 and manually input the data. Data input may be delayed at some destination facilities due to weekend and holiday schedules.