Patent ID: 7778939

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for a first class mail piece tracking provider to provide, to a plurality of customers of the first class mail piece tracking provider, tracking of individual outbound first class mail pieces respectively initiated in a mail stream by respective customers of the plurality of customers, said computer-implemented method implemented using a computer-based postage system programmed for operation on behalf of the first class mail piece tracking provider, said computer-based postage system available for communication with each respective customer of the plurality of customers, said computer-implemented method comprising: receiving, by the computer-based postage system, from a particular customer of the plurality of customers of the first class mail piece tracking provider, a request for a computer-based postage indicium to mail a particular first class mail piece to a delivery address; determining, by the computer-based postage system, a delivery address identifier corresponding to the delivery address; searching, by the computer-based postage system, a computer-accessible memory for a previously-used first class mail piece tracking identifier comprising the delivery address identifier, a highest-previously-used subscriber identifier, and a highest-previously-used mailing identifier; modifying, by the computer-based postage system, at least one of the highest-previously-used subscriber identifier and the highest-previously-used mailing identifier until determining, by the computer-based postage system, a next first class mail piece tracking identifier that has not been used during a particular period of time, said next first class mail piece tracking identifier comprising the delivery address identifier, a final version of the subscriber identifier, and a final version of the mailing identifier; assigning, by the computer-based postage system, the next first class mail piece tracking identifier to the particular first class mail piece; generating the computer-based postage indicium according to the request for the computer-based postage indicium; and creating, by the computer-based postage system, a particular machine-readable tracking graphic symbology, separate from said computer-based postage indicium, said particular machine-readable tracking graphic symbology encoding the next first class mail piece tracking identifier; wherein the highest-previously-used subscriber identifier and the final version of the subscriber identifier are from a group of a plurality of subscriber identifiers that have been assigned to the first class mail piece tracking provider, the plurality of subscriber identifiers identifying the first class mail piece tracking provider in a tracking service authorized by a postal authority.