US 8,608,068 B2 · Mail processing tracking system and method

Abstract

A method is described for tracking position of a mail piece within a facility. It includes steps of scanning a series of mail pieces to obtain identifying indicia therefrom, sorting the series of mail pieces according to a destination-based postal sorting strategy; and placing the sorted mail pieces into a container together with a marker comprising an RFID tag. In a computerized control system, identifiers for the RFID marker are identified with a sequence of mail pieces in the container. The RFID tag is scanned to associate a position of the container at the time of scanning with the mail in the container. The container is then transported, e.g. by loading a tray as the container onto a cart and then moving the cart. The method further includes video tracking the container from the position at the time of scanning to a later, different position at which a further postal operation takes place, such as loading of the trays onto a truck or feeding the mail from the trays onto the feeding ledge of a sorting machine hen a subsequent sorting step is needed.

Claims9

Dependent claims

A method for tracking position of a mail piece within a facility, comprising:

scanning a series of mail pieces to obtain identifying indicia therefrom;
sorting the series of mail pieces according to a destination-based postal sorting strategy;
placing the sorted mail pieces into a container, the container having a separate marker comprising an RFID tag and a barcode which is correlated to the RFID tag, the marker not attached to or containing the mail pieces;
in a computerized control system, associating identifiers for the marker with a sequence of mail pieces in the container;
scanning the RFID tag of the marker to associate a position of the container at the time of scanning with the mail in the container;
transporting the container;
and
video tracking the container from the position at the time of scanning to a later different position, including maintaining a map of each position of the container within the facility.

5 more elements

A computer-implemented process of tracking mail during postal handling at a postal processing facility, comprising:

initially sorting an incoming stream of mail on an automated sorting machine to a series of pockets based on a sort scheme;
during sorting, introducing separate RFID-tagged, machine-sortable markers into the incoming mail stream at intervals and sorting the RFID-tagged markers with the mail into pockets of the sorter, the markers not attached to or containing individual mail pieces, wherein the RFID tagged markers are identified during sorting by reading a barcode on the marker;
sweeping the mail and RFID-tagged markers from the pockets into trays, wherein the markers are introduced such that at least one marker is swept to each of a set of trays containing the sorted mail;
transporting the trays containing the mail and RFID-tagged markers from the automated sorting machine;
during a postal operation subsequent to the initial sorting, scanning one or more of the RFID-tagged markers;
and
identifying mail from the initial sorting from the scanned RFID-tagged markers;
and
tracking the position of each tray during the transporting step using a video tracking system.

6 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Mail processing tracking system and method

Life of this patent

Mail processing tracking system and method

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims9