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AssigneeUnited Parcel Service of America, Inc.
InventorsChristopher Scott Brehm, Stanley Alan Engel, Michael Todd McAlpin, Sandy Lee Pittman, Joseph Clay 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.
A method of processing medium-sized batches of unsorted mail pieces into larger pre-sorted batches for mailing in a postal system on each day of a plurality of days, the postal system having one or more postal service facilities, one or more holding facilities, and one or more mail pre-sorting facilities separate from the one or more postal service facilities, said method characterized by the steps of:
A method of processing medium-sized batches of unsorted mail pieces into larger pre-sorted batches for delivery to a postal service in a mail preparation system on each day of a plurality of days, the mail preparation system including one or more holding facilities and one or more mail pre-sorting facilities separate from one or more postal service facilities wherein there are costs associated with participating in the mail preparation system, said method characterized by the steps of:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.