Abstract:
A method for enabling a mailer to infer the amount of business reply that he/she is going to receive on a given day and determine the amount of postage that is due. The foregoing is accomplished by placing a planet code that references the mailer&#39;s permit number on the business reply so that when a scanner at the USPS reads the planet code, the postage for the business reply will be calculated, and the mailer will be notified of the calculation so that the mailer may deposit sufficient funds in a deposit account to pay for the postage. The mailer may deposit funds in the account by issuing a check, having funds automatically transferred from some account, or automatically having a check issued so that someone may take the check to the USPS and receive the business reply. Thus, the mailer will be able to determine the amount of postage that is going to be charged to his/her account.

Description:
[0001]     This Application claims the benefit of the filing date of U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/488,230 filed Jul. 17, 2003, which is owned by the assignee of the present Application. 
     
    
     FIELD OF THE INVENTION  
       [0002]     The invention relates generally to the field of mailing systems and, more particularly, to postage payment systems.  
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
       [0003]     Business mailers prepare and process various types of business mail utilizing inserters to collate the sheets and stuff the same into envelopes. Invoices, advertisements for the purchase of goods and/or services, prepaid post cards as well as business reply mail pieces, i.e., business reply envelopes, business reply cards. Business reply mail pieces sometimes are placed in outer envelopes mailed by business mailers to customers. Recipients of business mailers&#39; mail may enclose a check and invoice and/or an advertisement order form in the business reply mail piece and mail it via the United States Postal Service (USPS) to the business mailer. Business mailer recipient customers may also mail the enclosed business reply card back to the business mailer.  
         [0004]     The USPS allows a business mailer to receive first class business reply business reply from their customers and pay postage and a fee only for the returned to the mailer from the original distribution of the mailing. Postage and fees are collected when the mailer picks up the business reply mail pieces at his/her local USPS office. The mailer is unaware of how many business reply mail pieces are going to be returned to him/her by his/her customers. For instance, if a mailer mailed one million envelopes containing advertisements with business reply envelopes, the mailer may owe the USPS $9,700.00 if 10,000 business reply mail pieces were returned to the business mailer. If 100,000 business reply mail pieces were delivered to the mailer by the USPS, the mailer would owe the USPS $97,000.00; and if 1,000,000 business reply mail pieces were delivered to the mailer by the USPS, the mailer would owe the USPS $970,000.00.  
         [0005]     The USPS has established deposit accounts in which the mailer may deposit money to pay for the business replies that are delivered to the mailer&#39;s local USPS office. Since the mailer does not know on a daily basis how many business replies will be delivered to the mailer&#39;s local post office, the mailer does not know how much money to keep in his/her deposit account.  
         [0006]     Thus, one of the disadvantages of the prior art is that mailers are unaware of the amount of money they are required to place in their deposit accounts on a daily basis; hence, the mailers over fund their deposit accounts, adversely affecting their cash flow.  
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
       [0007]     The present invention overcomes the disadvantages of the prior art by enabling a mailer to infer the amount of business reply mail pieces that he/she will receive on a given day and determine the amount of postage that is due. This invention accomplishes the foregoing by placing a code, i.e., planet code, that references the mailer&#39;s permit number on the business reply mail pieces so that when a scanner at a carrier, i.e., USPS, reads the planet code, the postage for the business reply will be calculated, and the mailer will be notified of the calculation so that the mailer may deposit sufficient funds in a deposit account to pay for the postage. The mailer may deposit funds in the account by issuing a check, having funds automatically transferred from some account, or automatically having a check issued so that someone may take the check to the USPS and receive the business reply mail piece. Thus, the mailer will be able to determine the amount of postage that is going to be charged to his/her account. 
     
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING  
       [0008]      FIG. 1  is a drawing of a prior art business reply mail piece;  
         [0009]      FIG. 2  is a drawing of a business reply mail piece that may be utilized by this invention;  
         [0010]      FIG. 3  is a block diagram of the process flow of the funding mechanism for business reply;  
         [0011]      FIG. 4  is s a flow chart showing the processing of the preparation of mail piece  31  of  FIG. 2 ; and  
         [0012]      FIG. 5  is a flow chart that shows the process to calculate the postage owed by the business mailer. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT  
       [0013]     Referring now to the drawings in detail, and more particularly to Prior Art  FIG. 1 , the reference character  11  represents a business reply mail piece. Mail piece  11  has a recipient address field  12 , and a sender address field  13 , that is completed by the person returning business reply mail piece  11 . A block  14  indicating that “No Postage Necessary If Mailed In The United States” is positioned in the upper right hand corner of mail piece  11 , and a statement  15  that indicates “Postage Will Be Paid By Addressee” is positioned above recipient address field  12 . Mail piece  11  also contains a block  16  positioned above statement  15 . Block  16  indicates the type of mail, i.e., business reply mail  17 , the type of service, i.e., first class mail  18 , the permit number  19  and the location  20  of the post office that issued permit number  19 . A facing identification mark  21  is positioned along the top edge of mail piece  11 , and horizontal bars  22  are positioned along the right edge of mail piece  11 . A postnet bar code  23  is positioned below recipient address field  12  in a bar code clear zone.  
         [0014]      FIG. 2  is a drawing of a business reply mail piece  31  that may be utilized by this invention. Mail piece  31  has a recipient address field  32 , and a sender address field  33  that is completed by the person returning business reply mail piece  31 . A block  34  indicating that “No Postage Necessary If Mailed In The United States” is positioned in the upper right hand corner of mail piece  31 , and a statement  35  that indicates “Postage Will Be Paid By Addressee” is positioned above recipient address field  32 . Mail piece  31  also contains a block  36  positioned above statement  35 . Block  36  indicates the type of mail, i.e., business reply mail  37 ; the type of service, i.e., first class mail  38 ; the permit number  39 ; and, the location  40  of the post office that issued permit number  39 . A facing identification mark  41  is positioned along the top edge of mail piece  31 , and horizontal bars  42  are positioned along the right edge of mail piece  11 . A postnet bar code  43  is positioned below recipient address field  32 . A planet code  44  is positioned between recipient address field  32  and statement  35 . It would be obvious to one skilled in the art that planet code  44  may be positioned on a different area of mail piece  31 .  
         [0015]      FIG. 3  is a block diagram of the process flow of the funding mechanism for business reply. A business mailer would enter his/her permit number, permit location, amounts of business reply mail piece postage and fees, planet codes, and confidence level in mailer computer  150 . The foregoing entered information will be stored in database  108 . Printer/inserter  152  will print the planet and postnet bar codes on mail piece  31  and insert them into an outer envelope for delivery to recipient customer  156  by the USPS.  
         [0016]     When the recipient customer  156  opens the outer envelope and decides to return mail piece  31  to the business mailer via the USPS, a planet/ postnet bar code scanner  162  will read postnet bar code  43  and planet code  44  at many different locations during the postal delivery process. The information contained in bar codes  43  and  44  will be transferred to computer  160 . Computer  160  will store information in USPS confirm database  122 . Funding computer  170  will periodically obtain the information accumulated in database  122  and have the information copied in database  108  before mail piece  31  is delivered to the business mailer. Then funding computer  170  will periodically calculate the postage  172  that will be due to the USPS for particular business mailers before mail piece  31  is delivered to the business mailer. The calculated postage will be sent to data transmission device  174 . Device  174  will alert the business mailer that a specified number of mail pieces  31  have been scanned by the USPS at this time, and the business mailer will owe the USPS a specified amount of money on a given future day. The business mailer may elect to pay the USPS the specified amount of money on the given future day or have an automatic clearinghouse transaction be used to pay the specified amount money on the given future day to the USPS.  
         [0017]      FIG. 4  is a flow chart showing the processing of the preparation of mail piece  31  of  FIG. 2 . The program begins in block  100  where funding confidence levels are assigned, i.e., by the mailer who selects a level of confidence that he/she has funded enough money to pay for the returned business reply. The confidence level selected may be 95%. In block  102  the program assigns a unique planet code for each business reply mail piece  31  that is produced. Then the program goes to block  104  to assign for each produced mail piece  31  a permit account that is associated with each planet code. Now the program goes to block  106  where the program assigns postage rates that are associated with each planet code that is produced on a mail piece  31 . Postage funding database  108  receives data from blocks  100 ,  102 ,  104  and  106 . Data base  108  stores the business reply mail piece  31  permit numbers; the location of the USPS Offices that issued the permit numbers; the postage rate for each produced mail piece  31 ; and the planet code assigned for each mail piece  31 .  
         [0018]     Then in block  105 , the assigned planet codes are printed on each mail piece  31 . At this point in block  110 , mail pieces  31  are inserted into other envelopes (not shown) that are delivered to the USPS, which subsequently delivers the outgoing envelopes containing mail pieces  31  to recipients. Then, in block  114 , the preparation of mail pieces  31  is complete.  
         [0019]      FIG. 5  is a flow chart that shows the process to calculate the postage owed by the business mailer. Block  120  retrieves USPS confirm data from USPS confirm database  122 . Then the information in database  122  is copied into postage funding database  108 . Now block  124  retrieves the planet code data and other data read by scanners  162  ( FIG. 3 ). Block  126  insures that there will be only one planet code entry for each mail piece  31  that is read by scanners  162  which are positioned at different locations along the USPS delivery route.  
         [0020]     Block  128  causes blocks  130 ,  132 ,  134  and  136  to be performed for each mail piece  31 . Now in block  130 , the planet code scanner read rate that scanned mail piece  31  is retrieved from postage funding database  108 . Block  130  implies an average postal scanner read rate that was determined by previous experience with this system. For instance, if  95  mail pieces were read by scanners  162 , and  100  mail pieces  31  were delivered to the business mailer, the read rate would be 95%. Then in block  132 , the planet code scanner location is obtained from postage funding database  108 . At this point block  134  calculates one divided by the planet code scanner read rate. For instance, if the read rate was 50%, 1 divided by 50% would equal 2. Thus, if  50  mail pieces  31  were reported scanned by scanners  162 , probably 100 mail pieces  31  were passed by or not processed by scanners  162 .  
         [0021]     Then block  136  adds the total mail pieces calculated in block  134  to the sum of previously calculated mail pieces  31  at a specific scanner location until all the mail pieces  31  for a given period of time are processed.  
         [0022]     After all the mail pieces  31  are processed for a given day, block  138  retrieves the process proportion of the number of mail pieces  31  scanned by location divided by the number of mail pieces  31  that actually passed by that scanner location from database  108 . Then in block  140 , the payment confidence level is retrieved from database  108 .  
         [0023]     Then in block  142  the confidence interval is calculated using the following equation: 
 
Upper Confidence Interval= p+Z *Square Root(( p (1 −p ))/ n ) 
 
Lower Confidence Interval= p−Z *Square Root(( p (1 −p ))/ n ) 
 
 Where: Square Root ((p(1−p))/n)=Standard Deviation 
 
 Where: 
        P=Process Proportion     n=Scanned Pieces     Z=Standardized Normalized Variable (i.e. one standard deviation=1, two standard deviation=2, . . . , etc.)        
 
         [0029]     Then in block  144  the business reply mail per piece postage rate is retrieved from database  108 . Now in block  146 , the postage is calculated by scanner location using the following equation. 
 
Postage by Scanner Location= BRM  per Piece Postage Rate*(Total  BRM  pieces by Scanner Location/Lower Confidence Interval) 
 
         [0030]     Now block  147  determines the estimated number of days it will take for mail piece  31  to go from the location of scanner  162  currently scanning mail piece  31  to the post office of the business mailer. For example, the USPS divides the United States into postal zones, and it takes approximately 1-5 days for first class mail to go from one entry zone in the United States to another delivery zone. Then in block  148 , the business mailer&#39;s permit account is funded by the calculated amount on the necessary day.  
         [0031]     If 10,000 mail pieces  31  are expected to be delivered to the business mailer one day from now, the business mailer would owe the USPS (10,000) ($0.97) or $9,700.00 one day from now, and this invention would fund the business mailer&#39;s account one day from now. If 20,000 mail pieces  31  are expected to be delivered to the business mailer one day from now, the business mailer would owe the USPS (20,000) ($0.97) or $19,400.00 two days from now, and this invention would fund the business mailer&#39;s account two days from now. If 15,000 mail pieces  31  are expected to be delivered to the business mailer three days from now, the business mailer would owe the USPS (15,000) ($0.97) or $14,550.00 three days from now, and this invention would fund the business mailer&#39;s account three days from now. If 450 mail pieces  31  are expected to be delivered to the business mailer four days from now, the business mailer would owe the USPS (450) ($0.97) or $4,356.00 four days from now, and this invention would fund the business mailer&#39;s account four days from now. If 45,300 mail pieces  31  are expected to be delivered to the business mailer five days from now, the business mailer would owe the USPS (45,300) ($0.97) or $43,941.00 five days from now, and this invention would fund the business mailer&#39;s account five days from now.  
         [0032]     At this point, block  150  determines the number of mail pieces received. Then block  152  updates the cumulative mail pieces received, and mail pieces scanned postage funding database  108  is also updated by block  152 . Now block  154  calculates the new process proportion which equals the cumulative mail pieces scanned divided by the cumulative mail pieces received by the business mailer. Then, block  156  stores the new process proportion calculated in block  154  in block  108  to be used the next time. Then in block  158 , the above process is repeated after a specified period of time.  
         [0033]     The above specification describes a new and improved method for automatically funding business reply mail. It is realized that the above description may indicate to those skilled in the art additional ways in which the principles of this invention may be used without departing from the spirit. Therefore, it is intended that this invention be limited only by the scope of the appended claims.