Overnight package

An overnight package for delivery of letters. The package consists of a ply of paperboard and a ply of film joined to the paperboard to create a pouch in which an envelope bearing the shipper's address and the recipient's address may be inserted. The pouch has a pressure-sensitive sealing flap to securely enclose the letter within the pouch, thereby forming the shipping package.

This invention relates to a package and a method of handling overnight 
delivery of letters. 
Federal Express Corporation has an overnight letter service for which it 
provides to its customers a two-part package. The first part consists of 
two plies of paperboard in which a letter can be inserted. A sealing flap 
enables the letter to be sealed between the two plies. On one side of the 
paperboard package, provision is made for applying a label which contains 
the address of the shipper as well as the recipient. The other side 
consists of a single ply of plastic film sealed around three edges to form 
a pouch. The pouch is to receive an airbill which contains the name and 
address of the shipper and recipient. The airbill also has an airbill 
number in Arabic numerals as well as on a machine-readable code bar. The 
airbill number is read at the shipper's terminal and at the recipient's 
terminal with the information being fed into a computer, thereby enabling 
the company to keep track of the movement of the latter. 
Recently, Federal Express introduced an express manifest to replace the 
airbill for those shippers who regularly ship multiple packages. The 
express manifest is a single document with one place to list the shipper's 
name and address and with multiple positions, e.g., eight, for listing the 
various recipients. Associated with each recipient is a tracking number in 
Arabic numerals as well as on a machine-readable code bar. The tracking 
number is also duplicated on a label which can be stripped from the 
express manifest document and placed by pressure-sensitive adhesive on the 
shipper's package. 
The express manifest significantly simplifies the clerical steps required 
to send multiple packages. 
An objective of the present invention has been to provide further 
improvements in the handling on the part of the shipper and to simplify 
the overnight letter package. 
This objective is attained by providing a two-ply package consisting of a 
single ply of paperboard and a single ply which is primarily transparent 
film which, with the paperboard, forms a pouch. A sealing flap is provided 
to seal the pouch. 
This package, in cooperation with the express manifest, admits of the 
following simplified method. 
The shipper inserts a letter into the shipper's normal envelope, for 
example, a number 10 envelope which conventionally will have the shipper's 
address in the upper left-hand corner and the recipient's address typed on 
the face of the envelope. An entry in the manifest is made and the bar 
code label is placed on the shipper's envelope or on the package. The 
shipper's envelope is placed in the package and sealed. Thus, the package 
is ready for delivery to the carrier. 
The invention provides the advantages in that the handling eliminates the 
need for the preparation of a separate label with the shipper's and 
recipient's address and the pasting of that label to the package. This is 
particularly advantageous in a mailroom where many overnight letters are 
sent out every day. The invention provides the further advantage that the 
weight of the package is significantly reduced by the elimination of one 
of the two plies of paperboard.

Referring to FIG. 1, the package is indicated at 10 and consists of a stiff 
paperboard backing 11 and a film 12 which is sealed around three edges of 
the backing 11 as at 13, 14, and 15. The film and backing provide a pouch 
open at the end 16 into which an envelope 17 can be inserted. The film has 
a free end 20 containing a pressure-sensitive adhesive 21 covered by a 
sealable strip 22. When the strip 22 is removed, the free end 20 can be 
applied to the open edge 24 of the stiff backing 11 to seal the envelope 
17 within the pouch. 
The mainfest with which the present invention is used is known and has been 
in public use. As seen in FIG. 2, it consists of two panels 25 and 26. The 
first panel 25 has three carbonless identical sheets providing a "tracing 
copy," a "shipper's copy," and a "billing copy." Each sheet contains a 
heading 27 providing the name and other particulars of the shipper. Below 
the heading 27 are eight blocks 28 which contain the name and address of 
the recipient as well as a package tracking number indicated at 29, the 
tracking number being in Arabic as well as a machine-readable bar code. 
The opposing panel 26 has eight labels having the bar code and Arabic 
tracking number on one side as indicated at 31 and a pressure-sensitive 
adhesive on the other side. The labels are temporarily mounted on the 
panel 26 and are adapted to be removed and placed on the overnight letter. 
In the operation of the invention, the shipper prepares a letter, addresses 
an envelope and inserts the letter in the envelope, all as is highly 
conventional in business practice. That envelope contains the address of 
the shipper in the upper left-hand corner indicated at 35 and contains the 
address of the recipient in the central portion as indicated at 36. The 
pressure-sensitive label 31 is taken from the manifest and preferably is 
applied to the package 10 but can be applied to the upper right-hand 
corner of the envelope. That label contains in machine-readable form the 
bar code of the particular package being shipped. The envelope thus 
prepared is inserted into the package and the free end is closed by 
pressing the pressure-sensitive adhesive 21 on the free end 20 against the 
edge 24 of the backing 11. The shipper delivers the manifest and all of 
the packages prepared in accordance with FIG. 1 in the foregoing 
description to the express company. The label with the bar code is machine 
read at the various terminals as is conventional practice in order to 
follow the path of the package until it arrives at the recipient's 
address. In the event the package is lost, it can be traced. The shipper 
refers to the manifest, ascertains its bar code, determines from the 
computer how far the package moved and traces it from that point. Thus, 
the current practice of package tracing can be effected with the current 
pressure-sensitive bar code obtained from the manifest in accordance with 
current practices. However, the sending of overnight letters is simplified 
for the shipper in the elimination of the steps of typing and pasting a 
label on the package and there is significant weight reduction which 
benefits the carrier by virtue of the reduced weight of the package 
through the elimination of one of the paperboard plies conventionally used 
prior to the invention. 
An alternative form of the invention is shown in FIG. 3. As shown in FIG. 
3, a backing 40 has flaps 41 around its periphery. A ply of thin film 42 
has marginal edges 43 underlying the flaps 41. Those edges are glued to 
the flap on one side and to the backing on the other to form a pouch. The 
pouch is open at the end 44. The backing has a sealing flap 45 to which a 
pressure-sensitive adhesive 46 is applied, the adhesive being covered by a 
peelable strip 47. When an envelope 17 is prepared as described above and 
inserted into the package, it can be sealed in the package by removing the 
strip and folding the sealing strip over upon the free edge of the film 
42. In operation, the use of the package of FIG. 3 is the same as that of 
FIG. 1. 
It should also be understood that a package could be prepared by initially 
sealing the short sides and one long side so that the package is open at 
the top rather than at the left-hand edge as depicted in the illustrated 
form of the invention. 
Such a package is shown in FIG. 4 This package has a paperboard backing 51 
having sealing flaps 52 along its vertical edges. A front ply 53 is hinged 
to the back ply along a crease 54 and is sealed along its edges to the 
sealing flaps 52 to form a pouch. A free sealing flap 55 is secured to the 
backing 51 along its upper edge. Pressure-sensitive adhesive is covered by 
a peelable strip 56, the pressure-sensitive adhesive enabling the sealing 
flap to be closed on top of the front ply 53. 
The package of FIG. 4 is preferably 91/2".times.121/2" and contains a 
window 57 which is 6".times.9". This package can be used as a standard 
package to carry regular No. 10 business envelopes as well as envelopes 
suitable for mailing 81/2".times.11" documents without folding. As in the 
previous embodiments, the envelope to be inserted is addressed and 
inserted so that the shipper's and recipient's addresses are clearly 
visible through the window. The pressure-sensitive bar code label from the 
manifest is applied in the area indicated at 58. After sealing, the 
envelope is ready to go to the carrier with the manifest. While the 
envelope of FIG. 4 does not have the complete weight-saving features of 
the previous embodiments, a reduction in the weight of about 45% over a 
comparable overnight letter package suitable for receiving 81/2".times.11" 
documents is achieved.