Open and Distribute
Open and Distribute allows you to send bundles of presorted mail pieces to postal facilities located closer to where the item will be delivered. The mail gets to the recipient faster, on a more predictable date and in many cases for less money. When you can do something faster, more predictably, and in many cases for less money, it is good idea to do it.
Previously, this program was referred to as Express Mail Dropship and Priority Mail Dropship. It is now called Express Mail Open and Distribute and Priority Mail Open and Distribute. The new Open and Distribute program allows mailers to use the Postal Service’s expedited network for transporting their presorted bulk mailings to a facility closer to where the mail is to be delivered. The Postal Service Expedited transportation delivers the bundle of sacks or trays to postal facilities around the country within one to three days. Next the mailing is processed at those facilities to meet its appropriate service commitment.
The following diagram illustrates the current proposed standards for drop shipped mailings. It shows the number of days it will take for the mail to be delivered to the recipient from the facility it was drop shipped to:
The benefit is that recipients receive your mailings sooner, on a more predictable date (less variation compared to the standard non-expedited postal transportation) compared to what you receive when entering your mail locally. Predictable time of delivery is vital for time sensitive offers like some coupons. Yes it is sometimes less expensive to package up bundles of your presorted mail with postage applied at the destination entry rates, add the cost of Priority Mail Open and Distribute transportation and the total cost will still be less than bringing your mail to the local Post Office!
How do I take advantage of this program?
The first step would be to presort your mail. Next you take the trays or sacks that are going to a particular BMC, SCF, or AADC that you are drop shipping to and apply the appropriate tray tag or sack tag to the container. You will be using tag 161 for BMC ADC and SCF Trays. You will use tag 190 for sacks to DDUs and use tray tag 23 when you strap two trays together (remember they have to be strapped individually first then strapped together). Tag 157 is for the Express Mail Open and Distribute. These tags are normally any piece of cardstock with a hole cut out to enable you to strap them to the tray or sack.
Here is a sample of what tag 161 looks like:
Next you will need to apply a special Priority Mail Open and Distribute label with the Service barcode onto the tray. If you are using Express Mail Open and Distribute you will need to affix a special Express Mail Open and Distribute label onto the tag. The Priority Mail Open Distribute label and the Express Mail Open and Distribute label are generated with a shipping system (for example, Postal Package Partner is a shipping software that can do this).
To generate this Express Mail Open and Distribute, or Priority Mail Open and Distribute labels, you 1) enter the class of mail (ex. Standard Mail, Bound Printed Matter or Periodicals). 2) enter the processing category (ex. letters, flats, parcels), and 3) the facility type (BMC, SCF, AADC) into the software. Note, the software should have the latest mail redirection data from the Postal Service, so your Open and Distribute parcel goes to the correct postal processing facility. There are changes to some of these processing facilities that literally happen on a daily basis so make sure that you are receiving at least a weekly update to this data.
To eliminate the hassle of generating a meter strip for each tray or sack, it is much more efficient for your software system to also generate a manifest for the Open and Distribute sacks and trays. This will account for each piece so you may track the progress of the delivery of each container. It is best if your software has a central database to keep track of it all.
Useful links
http://www.windowbook.com/ppp
http://www.windowbook.com/News/Open-Distribute
http://www.windowbook.com/PPP/Modules/default.aspx
http://pe.usps.com/text/dmm300/705.htm#wp1037576
http://fastmedia.windowbook.com/docs/usps/Postal.pdf
Questions?
If you any questions about Priority Mail Open and Distribute or the Priority Mail Dropship System. Please call Window Book at 800-524-0380 or e-mail postalspecialist@windowbook.com.