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AssigneeUnited Parcel Service of America, Inc.
InventorsChristopher Brehm, Stanley Engel, Michael McAlpin, Sandy Pittman, Joseph Teate
Estimating the term…
A method and system is provided for collecting relatively small batches of mail that, alone, would not qualify for mailing at a pre-sorted postage rate and pooling them together with others for pre-sorting into a qualified batch of pre-sorted mail. The inventive method involves transporting mail in a traceable container to a holding facility where it is pooled with others for pickup and processing by a mail pre-sorting business. The mail may be metered at a reduced program rate. The system creates a cooperative of participating mail senders working together to earn a lower effective postage rate. The method further provides a solution to the technical problem of postal sorting equipment that is overburdened by medium-sized batches of unsorted mail. The solution identifies and diverts such batches for processing at a separate facility before the batch is tendered to the postal service.
In a postal service having a postal service facility and a plurality of mail senders, a method of processing medium-sized batches of unsorted mail pieces into a larger pre-sorted batch for mailing, said method characterized by the steps of:
In a mail preparation system, a method of processing medium-sized batches of unsorted mail pieces into a larger pre-sorted batch for delivery to a postal service, said method characterized by the steps of:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.