Patent ID: 8637783

Claim:
A machine-readable medium including instructions which when executed by a machine causes the machine to perform operations comprising: sorting mail, wherein sorting mail for a mail piece comprises: reading an encoded value located on the mail piece; decoding the encoded value to determine a delivery point for the mail piece, an identification of a sender of the mail piece, an identification of a recipient of the mail piece, an identification of a class of the mail piece and an identification of a service type of the mail piece; and determining whether the mail piece is a candidate undeliverable as addressed mail piece using the identification of the recipient of the mail piece within the encoded value and the identification of a delivery point for the mail piece within the encoded value, wherein the undeliverable as addressed mail piece comprises a mail piece that cannot be delivered as addressed, wherein in response to the mail piece being determined to be an undeliverable as addressed mail piece, the mail piece is either forwarded to the addressee of the mail piece, returned to the sender of the mail piece, or treated as waste; and performing the following operations in response to determining that the mail piece is a candidate undeliverable as addressed mail piece: retrieving a name of the recipient of the mail piece using the identification of the recipient of the mail piece within the encoded value; confirming that the candidate undeliverable as addressed mail piece is the actual undeliverable as addressed mail piece, using the name of the recipient of the mail piece; and determining final disposition of the mail piece using at least one of the identification of the class of the mail piece within the encoded value or the identification of the service type of the mail piece from the encoded value, wherein the class of the mail piece comprises a level of service for the mail piece that is based on at least one of a feature of the mail piece, a service level of the mail piece, a postage price of the mail piece, and a presort requirement of the mail piece, and wherein the service type of the mail piece that define instructions for how to process the mail piece in response to the mail piece being an actual undeliverable as addressed mail piece.