The IMB Dares to be Different
Uniqueness, in general, should be encouraged. In the case of the Intelligent Mail® Barcode (IMB), it is absolutely essential.
It is important that the USPS® be able to identify two things on every mail piece. First, the mail owner and, second, the specific mail piece must be identified and associated with other attributes such as delivery point. Neither of these characteristics is available with the current POSTNET™ technology.
It is critical that IMB users, utilizing Confirm® or Address Change Service (ACS™), be able to identify unique mail pieces from the information provided by the USPS. Imagine if there were multiple mail pieces with the same ID in the USPS system — the integrity of these services would be lost.
To meet both of these needs, the IMB contains the subscriber ID field to allow association of the mail piece to a given mail owner. Customers apply for, and are assigned, subscriber IDs by the USPS. These IDs are static, and each ID is associated with a company, mailing facility, or business unit — depending on mail volume.
The IMB also contains the sequence number field which is assigned and managed during barcode generation. This sequence number must remain unique for a minimum of 45 days.
The ID requirements present two key challenges:
- Sequence ID assignments for each subscriber ID must be managed to ensure uniqueness
- Mailers must associate and store an enterprise key with the subscriber ID
The USPS services Confirm and ACS use sequence IDs to report events. For example, Confirm events identify that an ID was in New York yesterday morning, in DC yesterday afternoon, and in Maryland this morning. If the mailer can not associate the sequence ID with the specific mail piece, then this sequence ID information is useless.
To better understand the ID details and to learn the ins and outs of IMB management, email Group 1 at mailstream_intelligentmail@g1.com or call 888-413-6763.