WO2008047117A2

WO2008047117A2 - Mail systems

Info

Publication number: WO2008047117A2
Application number: PCT/GB2007/003960
Authority: WO
Inventors: John Russell Kitchen; Norman Edward Parker; Anthony William King
Original assignee: Royal Mail Group Plc
Priority date: 2006-10-16
Filing date: 2007-10-16
Publication date: 2008-04-24
Also published as: AU2007311671A1; EP2082362A2; WO2008047117A3; GB0620485D0; GB2443213A

Abstract

An electronic information management system for mail items automatically exchanges information relating to mail items between a mail customer and a mail delivery service. A mail item carries coded indicia for unique identification within the mail delivery system. Specific applications are also disclosed.

Description

MAIL SYSTEMS Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to mail systems, particularly to improvements in the tracking of mail items, and information exchange between mail services and their customers.

Background of the Invention

Mail can be in many different forms and can come from many different sources. For example, a large proportion of mail produced is in the form of letters, or 'flats'. Other types of mail item are also processed, such as parcels and postcards etc. A mail authority is required to deliver these mail items according to a specific product's criteria bought by the customer of that mail authority. There are numerous products available to customers, which provide a specific service that aims to fit in with the customer's requirements. The term 'customer' is defined in this application as any entity, small or large, that purchases a delivery service from the mail authority in order to deliver a mail item to a specified destination or addressee. A customer may vary from a large Mailing House that produces on behalf of a client thousands of mail items a day to be sent across the whole country, and large companies who need to send out billing and account information for a large group of customers, down to small to medium enterprise (SME) companies who send out regular but smaller amounts of mail for their clientele and even individuals who wish to mail a letter to a friend. For example, a mailing house may create a large volume of mail that includes product advertising that is aimed at specific list of consumers. The consumers in the list are chosen based on either a set of criteria collected in data warehouses operated by the mailing houses, or by data provided by the Mailing Houses Customer or consumer marketing companies who collect the data on behalf of the companies who are advertising their products.

Other examples of customers include, for example, banking institutions, credit card companies and utility companies. Taking the example of a bank or credit card company, statements are sent out to all customers at regular intervals, resulting in an extremely large volume of mail. Further, cash or credit cards and associated PIN (Personal Identification Number) are also sent out, which require a certain level of security associated with the mailing procedure. In the case of utility companies, regular invoices and account details are forwarded to millions of consumers every month as well as return payment being sent back to the utility companies from the consumer.

Each type of customer has specific important criteria associated with the delivery of their mail which they would like to ensure is maintained. Some examples of the criteria important to the customer may include, for example, the speed of delivery, the accuracy of the delivery method, the overall quality of service of the method of mailing, how it was delivered, when it was delivered and the security of the mail item throughout the mailing process.

A mailing house, for example, maintains a database of consumer records, such as addresses, in order to forward relevant mail-shots to specific individuals. If the address database is not accurate or up-to-date, unnecessary cost arises whereby mail is sent to incorrect or non-existent addresses, or sent to the same recipient at the same address twice due to slight variations in the address. Therefore, a mail house would like to reduce the costs associated with incorrect addressing information. The process of preparing these vast databases of customer data involves the mailing house or originating customer collecting data on individuals that are targeted in their current mailing scheme, gathering the data and organising it so it can be used to provide a list of potential targets for the current mailing scheme. However, if the address data is ultimately incorrect, time and money is wasted producing the mail item or a potential customer is lost. If a mailing house, or indeed any other customer, is using incorrect address data, this can have a significant impact on the operational efficiency of the mail authority. For example, in the case where the address provided is incorrect in the sense that the recipient does not reside at the associated address, the mail authority may spend time in attempting to track down and forward the mail item to the correct recipient, or spend time in returning the mail item back to the original sender. In the case of incorrect addresses being printed on mail items in terms of insufficient information or errors in the data, the mail authority may need to spend time in attempting to deduce the correct address from the information provided. In each case, the source of the problem, i.e. the database holding the incorrect information, is not rectified resulting in the problem reoccurring time and time again.

Even if the address data maintained by a mailing house is correct, there are other problems associated with direct mailing. Although the mailing house will have compiled a list of targeted recipients based on customer data or third-party databases, the mailing house may have no information as to how the targeted recipients are likely to react to direct mail, either in general or to the type of direct mail being sent by the mailing house. In extreme cases, a recipient may opt out of receiving direct mail altogether, but most recipients dislike only certain types of direct mailing, and may respond to other types. Another problem with direct mailing, particularly where a reply envelope is sent, is that the entity handling the replies cannot accurately predict the resources needed to handle the replies. Some direct mailings may elicit an unexpectedly large number of replies, others very few.

Credit card companies forward new credit cards to their own customers, or to new customers, at regular intervals. This requires additional security ensuring that the card is traceable throughout the entire process of production of the mail item to delivery. Although it is known to have a product such as 'signed for¹, which require the recipient to sign for each individually received mail item, without being able to trace individual mail items throughout the mail system it is not possible to determine where any potential security flaws have occurred. That is, the system only informs the customer that the delivery process was successful and, in the case of an unsuccessful delivery, does not provide full details of the entire process enabling the customer or Mail Service provider to deduce what went wrong, how it went wrong and how to fix the problem. With a product such as 'signed for' only a one-dimensional service is available that provides feedback to the customer of when and where the mail was delivered. It is not possible for the customer to request additional information concerning other potentially relevant information such as the route, what else was delivered at that time from the same company etc.

In the example of a SME company, it may be necessary to provide information to clients based on documents received in the post. This information may be time dependent and so needs to be acted upon within a certain deadline. Therefore, a problem may arise when mail is received late at the SME, for example, several days after the sender has sent it. In this situation, the SME is not able to determine how to solve the problem of the mail arriving late other than to go back to the sender and request they investigate. Therefore, the sender is not able to rectify the problem or even identify where in the delivery system the problem is occurring. Royal Mail (RTM) provides database services such as:

PAF data which records current valid addresses within the UK PIF data which adds postcode and delivery point data to PAF data Postzon data which links postcode data to other data such as geographical area.

These database services are licensed to customers for managing their mailing lists, but Royal Mail cannot currently determine whether the recipient address on a mail item has been checked against PAF/PIF data. Another problem relates to a lack of information about delivery addresses. Some mail customers delivering resalable goods through the mail find that there is a high incidence of loss of those goods to specific addresses, mail areas, or types of address. For example, deliveries to communal apartments may be prone to theft. As an extreme measure, such customers may refuse to send such goods to certain addresses or areas, based on previous reported losses. However, these customers are unable accurately to determine which addresses pose a high risk.

Another problem relates to non-payment of invoices or accounts, which can be paid by cheque through the post. A final reminder may cross with a cheque in the post, so that the reminder is unnecessary and possibly irritating to the recipient. A similar problem occurs when debt recovery action is commenced when a cheque has already been sent. Conversely, a non-payer may sometimes attempt to evade a debt recovery action by claiming that 'the cheque is in the post'. The debt recovery agent cannot disprove this statement and therefore discontinues the action.

Further, the mail authority also has specific criteria that are important to it in order to maintain an efficient and viable service. For example, the mail authority would ideally like to be able to receive the correct fees for every piece of mail that is associated with a particular service provided, as well as be able to monitor the processing of mail items from the point of acceptance through to delivery. In current systems, there can be a mismatch between the amount of mail the customer says it is dispatching to the mail authority and the actual amount of mail handed over. For example, when a mailing house produces a batch of mail for delivery by the mail authority a docketing system is used. The docketing system is a paper system that tells the mail authority how many mail items are being handed over by the customer for delivery. It is not uncommon for there to be a mismatch between the number of items supplied and the number of items listed on the docket. This may be, for example, because of a delay in the print cycle of the mail items during production at the mail house. The mail house may then include the 'missing' mail items in a later batch of mail items handed over to the mail authority thus resulting in another mismatch between the docket and the actual consignment. Also, due to the large number of mail items being produced, it may not always be possible to give accurate information on the exact number of mail items being dispatched to the mail authority for delivery. These inaccuracies can result in overcharging or conversely lost revenues for the mail authority. Further, the disparity of information requires the customer to spend time tallying up what has actually been produced and the information on the dockets. Royal Mail Group pic provide a system called E*pro, which enables customers to detail their consignments in an electronic format online. Although this system allows customers to reduce the amount of paperwork, the problems of tallying up the information with actual consignments and lost revenue due to incorrect information are not solved. Both the paper based and electronic based docketing systems rely on a summary volume of mail being stated on each line of the order: this is not checked by Royal Mail except on a sample basis. Courier services monitor the delivery of parcels from their point of pickup to delivery. Monitoring is carried out by the courier applying a unique code to the parcel at the pickup point and scanning the code at specific points throughout the supply chain process, often with a manual scanner. This system works for mail items such as parcels due to the relatively small volume of parcels (with respect to the volume of regular flat mail items) that are required to be tracked, and the increased charge applied to use such a service to cover the cost of tracking. The system employed by parcel tracking services is too slow and cumbersome for monitoring a large number of individual mail items, such as letters or 'flats'. The United States Mail Service (USPS) have introduced a service that monitors individual mail items by using a tracking system that applies a 31 digit, 4 state barcode to the mail item. The reading of this code at various points in the supply chain enables USPS to trace the performance of the service at an individual item level attributed to a specific customer. However, the customer is required to expressly request this service in advance for a specified number of mail items in order to use it. Therefore, if a customer suddenly realises there was an error in the delivery of a certain mail item, and has not already included that mail item as part of the service, they are not able to retrieve any information regarding that mail item. Also, the data provided is in a raw data format which then requires the customer, or a third party, to decipher and formulate into coherent information. Further, the information provided within the code is limited. Example of a Known Mail System

As an example of the processes carried out by a mail authority, Royal Mail Group pic provides a distribution and delivery service involving, for example, the following schemes.

Figure IA is a schematic illustration of the various components of a known mail system, such as that which has been operated successfully for many years by the Royal Mail on behalf of the United Kingdom mail authorities. As shown in Figure IA, collection and delivery of mail items (such as letters, postcards, parcels etc.) in the Mail System 1 is split into three general stages, a collection stage 3, a sorting stage 5, and a delivery stage 7. At the collection stage 3 mail items are collected from a variety of different sources, such as from mail boxes 9 distributed around the country, from mail offices 11 where the mail items have been handed by the public to the mail authorities, and direct from businesses 13. The collected mail items are gathered together at local nodes of the mail system and are then sent to one or more district collection hubs 15 where mail items from a number of local nodes are gathered together.

In the second stage 5 of the mail system, all the items sent to the district collection hubs 15 are sent to a so-called "outward" mail centre 17 for sorting. The outward mail centre 17 is so named because it deals with mail items that are on their way from collection to the wider mail system network. The outward mail centre 17 may also receive outgoing mail directly from licensed mail carriers. At the outward mail centre 17, mail items are sorted into those items which are destined for delivery in designated districts local to the outward mail centre (local items), and those which are destined for delivery to other, more remote districts (remote items).

Local items are finely sorted (for example into items for particular towns and/or streets) and are then sent on from the outward mail centre to appropriate local delivery offices 19 for delivery to the mail item addressees in the third stage 7 of the mail system 1.

Remote items are roughly sorted (for example into items for particular regions of the country) and are sent onto the appropriate inward mail centre 21 for each region of the country. At the inward mail centre 21 (so named because it deals with mail items that are coming in from the wider mail network prior to delivery) the items received from outward mail centres 17, and from elsewhere, are finely sorted into, for example, items for particular towns and/or streets. Although the outward mail centre 17 and the inward mail centre 21 are identified as different types of entity, these will normally each comprise a mail distribution centre handling both outward and inward mail. The third and final stage of the mail system 1 is the delivery stage 7 where mail items sorted by the inward mail centre 21 are transferred to local delivery offices 23 for delivery to the mail item addressees. At this stage of the process the local items sorted by the outward mail centre 17 are also delivered by the local delivery offices to the item addressees.

Figure 2 is a schematic illustration of the various processes that occur when mail items are sorted at one of the aforementioned mail centres for example the outward mail centre 17.

As shown in Figure 2, mail items of a variety of different types arrive at the mail centre from the collection hub 15. The arriving mail items 25 can be roughly split into meter pouch items 27 which have been pre-sorted into class pouches (red pouches for first class mail, green pouches for second class mail) by customers, collection items 29 which have been collected from mail boxes 9 and mail offices 11, account items 31 which have been received from customers with Royal Mail accounts, and priority service items 33 which have an additional payment for one of the many different types of priority service. Typically, meter pouch items 27 are those that have been collected from businesses in the collection stage 3 of the mail system shown in Figure 1. Account items are typically from businesses that send out a large amount of correspondence, for example direct mailing companies. Account items are often known as PPI mail (or Printed Postage Impression mail) due to the fact that the envelopes used are usually pre-printed with the appropriate postage. Collection items 29 will typically not have been sorted for class of service (e.g. 1st class or 2nd class), or for size of mail. In the next stage of the sorting process, mail items in meter pouches 27 are transferred to a meter table 35 where the mail items are manually removed from the pouches and either transferred to an Integrated Mail Processor 37 (known as an IMP) or direct to a primary sortation facility 39 for further processing.

Collection mail items 29, once received by the mail centre, 17 are transferred to the IMP 37 for further processing. Account mail items 31 may be passed to a revenue protection facility 41 before also being passed to the IMP 37. 10

where they are despatched to local delivery facilities or to an inward mail centre 21 such as that described above with reference to Figure 1.

Figure 3 provides an illustrative schematic view of the various components of the IMP 37. It is not essential that these components are integrated; they may be provided as discrete components, and some may be omitted altogether.

In a first step 51, the IMP 37 is manually loaded with mail items with obviously outsize (or otherwise unsuitable) mail items being rejected by the individuals loading the machine. The mail items entering the IMP pass up a conveyor belt to a culler 53 where the mail items are spun in a rotating drum. The sides of the drum are slotted so that mail items that are suitable for automatic processing fall through the slots. Mail items that are too large for automatic processing are rejected (in step 57), in that they move through the drum and fall out the end. These outsize, or otherwise unsuitable, items are collected and taken to the primary sortation facility 39 for hand sorting. Typically, the IMP will reject any mail items that have a thickness that is greater than 6mm or so.

Mail items falling through the slots in the drum in the culler 53 are passed to a facing and classing unit 55 where the items are appropriately orientated, and the mail class of the items is determined. Again, any items which cannot be classed, or which cannot be faced are rejected (in step 57) and passed to the primary sortation facility 39 for hand sorting.

Correctly faced and classed mail items are then passed to a cancelling unit 59 which cancels postage applied to the items by overprinting the postage with a post mark. Once the postage has been cancelled the items are passed to an OCR device 61 where an image is taken of the address block on the item and an optical character recognition process is employed to attempt to determine the mail code of the address block.

An Address Interpretation (AI) system may be incorporated within the OCR device 61. The AI system applies a set of rules for interpreting destination addresses read from each mail item. A check is made to see if the given address In the revenue protection facility 41, bags and/or trays of mail items received from account customers are weighed and/or counted, and the read weight or count is checked against a bag weight printed by the customer on a ticket attached to the bag. The charge billed to the customer's account can be adjusted in the event of any discrepancy between the weight and/or count declared by the customer and the weight and or count read by the revenue protection facility. Priority service mail items 33 are kept separate from the remainder of the mail items and are passed to a security locker 43 where they are sorted manually prior to being dispatched at a security despatch station 45. As mentioned above, all of the collection items 29, some or all of the meter pouch items 27, and the account items 31 are passed to the EVIP 37 for sorting. Any mail unsuitable for sorting via the IMP 37 is rejected and sent to the primary sortation facility 39.

The operation of the IMP 37 will be described later, but at this juncture it suffices to mention that the IMP operates (for those items which can be automatically sorted):

(i) to detect the class of the mail items (i.e. whether first or second class);

(ii) to cancel postage applied to the mail items; (iii) to apply two machine readable codes, one of which uniquely identifies the item within the sorting stage 5 and the other of which comprises a route code to aid in onward sorting (iv) to sort the mail items by destination.

Any items which cannot be processed by the IMP 37 (or meter pouch items 27 not routed via the IMP), for example because they have an unusual shape or because the address cannot be read, are passed to the primary sortation facility 39 where they are fine sorted by hand into mail for local regions and rough sorted into mail for remote regions. The items for remote regions are then passed to a secondary sortation facility 47 where they are more finely sorted. Once the mail items have been sorted, either by the IMP 37 or by the primary and secondary sortation facilities 39,47, they are passed to a despatch facility 49 matches the given mail code, and if not, whether the conflict can be resolved based on a pre-determined set of rules.

If the mail code cannot be read for any of these items, the image of the address block may be sent to a remote Manual Data Entry Centre (MDEC) to determine the Postcode and or Address and the items in question are passed to a delay line 63 which sidelines the mail item in question for a predetermined period of time. Whilst a given item is in the delay line, at additional cost to Royal Mail Group, an operator in the MDEC is presented with the image of the address block and that operator is provided with a short period of time to determine and input the correct postcode from the image presented. The correct inputted postcode, once inputted, is assigned to the associated mail item, and the item is then coded (in step 63) and sorted (in step 65).

If the operator cannot identify the correct postcode from the image presented, then the item concerned is rejected (in step 57) and passed to the 20 primary sortation facility 39 for hand sorting.

If the postcode is determined, either by the OCR device 61 or the MDEC, then the identity and route codes are applied to the front of the mail item by a barcoding device in step 63 and the item is sorted in accordance with the applied code in step 65. As shown in Figure 2, items that have been correctly coded and sorted by the IMP 37 are passed directly to the despatch facility 49 where they are despatched to local delivery facilities or to an inward mail centre 21 such as that described above with reference to Figure 1. The identity code applied by the outward mail centre 17 to an item is transmitted electronically to the inward mail centre 21 to which that item is routed. Hence, the identity codes are shared between outward and inward mail centres, for the purposes of internal tracking and sorting within the second stage 5. However, the identity codes are used entirely for internal routing purposes and the information concerning the routing of mail items is lost once the mail items leave the mail service. The SmartStamp (RTM) service, provided by Royal Mail Group pic, allows a registered user to print postage indicia onto their mail items. The indicia have the capability of holding information associated with the sender and recipient. However, this only allows mail items to be identified as belonging to the associated sender, but does not give the capability of identifying each individual mail item in a unique manner. Although the systems described above provide a quick and automatic method of determining correct addresses, if irresolvable incorrect addressing information is provided on the mail item, the mail item may enter the mail system only to be returned to the sender. If the addressing information cannot be resolved automatically, it may sometimes be resolved by manual inspection or guesswork, but only at great cost. If the addressing information cannot be resolved manually and no return address is provided, the mail item will be lost. Another problem with existing mail systems is that they do not allow tracking of an exchange of mail items relating to an underlying transaction. For example, a bank may send a direct mailing inviting the recipient to apply for a loan. The bank does not know whether the recipient has replied to the invitation until the reply is received through the mail. Only then can the bank begin to process the loan application to prepare a loan offer to the recipient. The loan offer is then sent by mail, but the bank cannot process the loan until the acceptance form is received from the recipient. Hence, the transaction is unnecessarily delayed by the need to receive a written reply through the mail before proceeding to the next step.

Statements of the Invention

According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided an electronic information management system for mail items submitted by a plurality of customers for delivery by a mail service, the system comprising: associated with each said customer, a customer mail database identifying a plurality of mail items; and associated with the mail service, a mail service database; the system being arranged automatically to reconcile said customer mail database with the mail service database. In one embodiment, the customer mail database includes mail creation data identifying a plurality of mail items to be created and the mail creation data is reconciled against the mail service database so as to modify the mail creation data prior to creation of the plurality of mail items. In one specific embodiment, the mail creation data includes address data, and the address data is automatically reconciled against the mail service database so as to correct the address data, in another specific embodiment. In another specific embodiment, the mail creation data includes address data corresponding to the mail items, and the address data is automatically reconciled against the mail service database so as to identify historical delivery problems associated with selected address data, such that the address data is modified to overcome the historical delivery problems. The mail creation data may additionally identify the mail type, and the mail service database may identify historical delivery problems associated with that mail type for the associated address.

In another embodiment, the customer mail database includes submitted mail data identifying a plurality of mail items submitted to the mail service, and the mail service database includes received mail data identifying corresponding mail items received from the customer and reconciles the submitted mail data with the received mail data. The submitted mail data may comprise an electronic manifest that is also submitted to a print service for the creation of the mail items. In another embodiment, the system identifies resources required by the mail service to deliver the plurality of mail items. Billing data may be generated by the mail service according to the identified resources. The identified resources may include environmental resources or environmental impact.

In another embodiment, the mail service database identifies differential billing rates associated with absolute times or dates of submission or delivery of mail, and generates billing data associated with the mail items according to the differential billing rates.

In another embodiment, the customer mail database includes return mail data identifying a mail item and an associated return mail item; the return mail data is communicated to the mail service database, which notifies the customer mail database when the return mail item is received into the mail service.

According to another aspect of the invention, there is provided coded indicia for use on a mail item, the coded indicia comprising data elements adapted to hold data associated with the identification of the sender's account with the mail service, the identification of the consignment associated with the mail item, and the unique identification of the mail item.

According to another aspect of the invention, there is provided a mail item tracking method for tracking a mail item through a mail system comprising the steps of associating each mail item with a code that uniquely identifies the mail item from any other mail item within the mail system, applying the code to the mail item using a data mark, recording the code in a first database, monitoring mail items at a predetermined monitoring point within the mail system, identifying the mail item by reading the code, and recording within a first database data associated with the monitoring point. According to another aspect, there is provided a mail item tracking system for tracking a mail item through a mail system, the tracking system comprising code generation means adapted to generate a code that uniquely identifies the mail item from any other mail item within the mail system; application means adapted to apply the code to the mail item using a data mark; recording means adapted to record the code in a first database; monitoring means adapted to monitor mail items at a predetermined monitoring point within the mail system; identification means adapted to identify the mail item by reading the code, the recording means further adapted to record within the first database data associated with the monitoring point.

According to another aspect of the invention, there is provided a mail item tracking database comprising means to track a mail item using a code that uniquely identifies the mail item from any other mail item within the mail system, the database adapted to receive data from a predetermined monitoring point within the mail system, the data associated with the mail item at the time it is monitored, the database adapted to store the data in data records, the data records being associated with the mail item by the code. According to another aspect of the invention, there is provided a mail item tracking system comprising production means, communication means and data storage means, the production means comprising printing means for printing data on the mail item, the printing means adapted to produce a unique code associated with the mail item, the communication means adapted to communicate the unique code to the data storage means, the data storage means adapted to provide an electronic file associated with a predetermined group of mail items, the electronic file comprising a list of unique codes for each item within the predetermined group of mail items. According to another aspect of the invention, there is provided a mail sorting system adapted to provide redirection of a priority mail item, the mail item comprising a unique code associated with the mail item, the code adapted to indicate that the mail item is a priority item, and a redirection means adapted to redirect the mail item upon detection of the code by a detection means. According to another aspect of the invention, there is provided a mail sorting system adapted to provide rerouting of mail items based on data associated with the flow of mail items within the sorting system, the system comprising a data collection means adapted to collect data associated with the flow of mail items at a predetermined point in the system, a processing means adapted to determine if the flow of mail items is above a predefined threshold, and a rerouting means adapted to reroute mail items at the predetermined point if the flow exceeds the threshold. According to another aspect of the invention, there is provided a reporting system for reporting data associated with the processing of a mail item within a mail system, said data indicating when and where the mail item was processed, the system comprising a unique code generating means, a monitoring means, a storage means, a detection means and a reporting means, the unique code generating means adapted to apply a unique code to each mail item, the detection means adapted to detect the unique code at predetermined points, the monitoring means adapted to record, in the storage means, upon detection of said mail item by the detection means, information associated with the processing of the mail item in the mail system, the reporting means adapted to provide data to a customer based on the information recorded in the storage means.

According to another aspect of the invention, there is provided a pipeline performance measurement system adapted to be used in a mail system, wherein a mail item within the mail system is identified by a unique code, said mail system comprising detection means adapted to detect the position of the mail item at a predetermined point within the mail system, the mail system further comprising a storage means adapted to store data associated with the position of the mail item based on information received from the detection means, the pipeline performance measurement system adapted to determine, based on the information stored in the storage means, whether the mail item was or was not processed in the mail system according to a predefined measure of quality.

According to another aspect of the invention, there is provided an address monitoring system adapted for use in a mail system, the address monitoring system comprising address identification means, the address identification means adapted to identify the address printed on the mail item, determination means adapted to determine if the address is an invalid address, and correction means adapted to rectify any invalidity. In another aspect of the present invention the mail service provides a series of rules for the automatic identification of mail through its network. These rules detail what information is to be provided and how it should be presented on the envelope and where appropriate how the supporting electronic 'mailing manifest' should be created and transmitted to the mail service. The mailer then applies these rules during the creation of the mail item. For bulk mail discounted products the mailer transmits an electronic 'mailing manifest' detailing the unique identification placed upon each mail item. The mailing manifest provides the mailer with additional information-related benefits which cannot be achieved from relying wholly on the unique identification of the mail item.

Unique identification of the mail item to the mail service may be applied automatically, by a franking machine or the like, as part of the preparation of the mail item for sending to the mail service. In this case, the address of the mail item need not be communicated to the mail service in advance, but other information typically entered on a franking machine, such as mail class, delivery region (national/international region) and the like, may be communicated to the mail service. The mail service communicates the identifying data to the franking machine, which then applies the machine-readable indicia to the mail item.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of tracking a mail item, wherein a sender identifies to a mail service a mail item to be sent through the mail service. Data uniquely identifying the mail item may include the recipient address and/or information, which may be verified by the mail service at this stage. The mail service enters the identity of the mail item in a mail tracking database and replies to the sender with unique identifying data that the sender encodes as machine-readable indicia on the mail item prior to submitting the mail item to the mail service. The mail service tracks the mail item through a mail delivery network by reading the machine-readable indicia automatically, and notifies the sender (or another party) that the mail item has reached a predetermined point in the network.

In another aspect of the invention, a sender may purchase a pre-paid envelope carrying machine-readable indicia, and may mark on the envelope a recipient address and notification details, such as a mobile telephone number or email address, prior to posting. The mail service reads the machine-readable indicia, which indicate that the envelope is a pre-paid notification mail item, together with the recipient address and notification details, by means of OCR or the like. When the mail item reaches a predetermined point in the mail network as determined by the mail service, such as the recipient address, a notification message is sent according to the notification details e.g. a text message is sent to the mobile number, or an email is sent to the email address.

In another aspect, the present invention provides a mail response tracking method in which a sender sends a mail item including a mail return item, such as a reply envelope, carrying identifying data as indicia that may be machine-readable. The sender may notify the mail service that the mail return item is being sent such that the identifying data are established with the mail service prior to return of the mail return item. The identifying data may have been generated by the mail service prior to the generation of the indicia by the sender, or the identifying data may have been generated by the sender and notified to the mail service. When the mail return item is returned through the mail service, the indicia are read (preferably automatically) by the mail service and the sender is notified by the mail service that the mail return item is being returned, in advance of the mail return item being delivered. Alternatively, some or all of the party sending the mail item, the party receiving the return mail item and the party receiving the notification may be different entities.

In another aspect, the present invention provides a system for enhanced information exchange between a mail customer and a mail service operator. The mail service operator maintains a mail service database, including address data (such as addresses and mail codes) and data associated with, but not forming part of the address data. The associated data may be historical data concerning previous mail deliveries to the associated address, or status data indicating the deliverable status of the associated address. Alternatively, the associated data may be data derived from external databases, such as socio-economic data referring to the associated address. The mail customer maintains a recipient database, also including corresponding address data. The address data in the customer's recipient database may be linked to the address data in the mail service operator's database, to enhance information exchange between the customer and the mail service operator.

One application of this information exchange is in address verification; for example, the customer communicates to the mail operator a set of recipient addresses to which mail items are to be sent. The mail operator verifies the recipient addresses against the mail service database. The addresses are verified for accuracy and/or deliverable status. For those addresses that are verified by the mail service, corresponding identifying data is sent to the customer. The customer sends the corresponding mail items to the mail service, each item bearing machine-readable indicia corresponding to the identifying data for that mail item. The indicia are read automatically by the mail service and are used to confirm that the corresponding mail item is deliverable. The identifying data may indicate the address of the intended recipient, which may be reproduced in the corresponding indicia so that the address is read automatically from the indicia without the need to read the address printed on the mail item in alphanumeric characters (i.e. human readable form).

Another application lies in statistical reporting from the mail service to the customer. Li this application, the customer sends mail items with machine- readable indicia corresponding to the recipient addresses. The indicia may have been generated from identifying data sent from the mail service to the customer prior to submission of the mail items, or may be generated by the customer autonomously of the mail service, but in such a way as to indicate the recipient address to the mail service, hi either case, the mail service reads the indicia automatically and sends information to the customer indicating mail statistics by address. For example, the mail statistics may indicate the time taken to deliver to each address, or which addresses could not be delivered to at all. Another application lies in address-based statistical reporting from the mail service to the customer based on previous deliveries to recipient addresses, possibly including deliveries made by other customers. For example, the customer may request information on a specified address and the mail service may provide historical information corresponding to that address, such as the proportion of successful past deliveries to that address, or the proportion of deliveries requiring acknowledgement that were acknowledged.

Another aspect of the invention relates to information exchange between the customer and the mail service, independently of the relationship between addresses on a mail service database and a customer's recipient database. For example, the mail service may notify the customer of the quality of service of a specified set of mailings, such as the percentage delivered successfully, or within a specified time. Billing to the customer may be dependent on such quality of service metrics, so that the customer is issued with a credit for items not delivered, or delivered later than a specified time.

Specific embodiments of the present invention provide an integrated data rich environment that benefits the sender or producer of the mail and the mail service distributing the mail. For example, improved security is provided for individual mail items, such as high value items including credit cards, wherein the mail item is traceable throughout the mail system.

In one specific embodiment, monitoring the service provided to the customer indicates that the service actually provided matches that requested. In addition, this information may be used by the mail service to ensure that the specified service is provided. These advantages may make the revenue checking process more efficient and transparent to customers.

In another specific embodiment, internal diagnostics of the operation of the mail system within the mail service environment are provided to the mail service in order to aid the reduction of bottlenecks and failures due to network fragility. In yet another specific embodiment, enabling the source of errors to be corrected provides an improved management of customer address databases and reduction in errors.

In yet another specific embodiment, it becomes possible to provide detailed statistical reports on the complete delivery and distribution process of any defined mail item in order to help the customer determine if and what changes are required to improve the delivery process and therefore save costs, increase efficiency etc. Further, the information collected allows the mail service to ensure that the customer is paying for the exact number of mail items that are being processed, as well as ensuring that the mail service obtains the correct payment for processing the correctly identified number of mail items.

Brief Description of the Drawings

Specific embodiments of the present invention will now be described by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure IA is a schematic illustration of the various components of a known mail system;

Figure IB illustrates the relationship between invoices, contracts, accounts and legal entities used in a billing loop;

Figure 1C shows a data flow diagram according to an embodiment of the present invention;

Figure ID shows an example system and highlights example points of information collection according to an embodiment of the present invention;

Figure 2 is a schematic illustration of the various processes that occur when mail items are sorted at one of the outward mail centres shown in Figure IA;

Figure 3 is a schematic illustration of the various components of an IMP such as that shown in Figure 2;

Figure 4A is a schematic illustration of a data mark for use in an embodiment of the present invention; Figure 4B is a schematic illustration of the codes used in the data mark of

Figure 4 A according to an embodiment of the present invention;

Figure 5 is a schematic illustration of the process of preparing a mail item and manifest according to an embodiment of the present invention;

Figure 6 shows a block diagram of the system architecture according to an embodiment of the present invention;

Figure 7 is a schematic illustration of coded indicia for use in an embodiment of the present invention;

Figure 8 is a diagram of a first embodiment of the invention; Figure 9 is a diagram of a second embodiment of the invention; Figure 10 is a diagram of a third embodiment of the invention; and

Figure 11 is a diagram of a fourth embodiment of the present invention. Coded Indicia - First Embodiment

Figure 4A depicts a first embodiment of coded indicia for use as a machine-readable code in embodiments of the invention. The coded indicia 67 comprise a so-called "four state bar code", sometimes referred to as the Royal Mail 4-State Customer Code (RM4SCC). Royal Mail specially developed the RM4SCC for automated mail sorting processes. However, according to this embodiment of the invention, the information stored within the code differs from the information usually stored, as will be explained later. The RM4SCC is based on 36 barcodes that are capable of representing alphanumeric characters 0 to 9 and A to Z, and start and stop characters "(" and ")" respectively. As shown in Figure 4A, in the barcode a small black bar extends upwards, downwards or in both directions, and any one alphanumeric symbol is encoded by four bars — two of which have an upward extension and two of which have a downward extension.

Figure 4B illustrates in graphical form the bar combinations and corresponding alphanumeric symbols. In Figure 4B, the symbols to the left of the slash represent upward bar extensions and the symbols to the right of the slash represent downward bar extensions, hi each case, a plus symbol means that the bar is extended and a minus symbol means that the bar is not extended. The information in the code is encrypted using any suitable technique known in the encryption industry.

Figure 5 shows a schematic illustration of the process of preparing a mail item and electronic manifest. A key element in the process of preparing and delivering mail items is the handover of those items from the customer to the mail delivery service. If, as is usual in current practice, information identifying the supplied mail items to the mail service does not match with the information identifying the mail items received by the delivery service, both parties can incur huge costs in attempting to reconcile the differences. In this embodiment, a mail item (mail item) 501 has a destination address and addressee information 503 applied to the front face of the mail item 501. Also printed on the front face are the coded indicia 505 in the RM4SCC format.

In this particular embodiment, the RM4SCC includes the following data: Service ID: An identification of the mailing product by which the mail item 501 is to be processed by Royal Mail.

Consignment ID: An identification of the consignment of mail items in which this particular mail item is to be included.

Unique Item ID: A unique reference that enables the mail item to be uniquely identified from all other mail items, possibly in conjunction with other data within the coded indicia.

Account ID: An identification of the customer's account enabling the mail service to identify the customer.

Post Code: The code identifying the area to which the mail item is to be delivered.

Check Digit & Encryption Code: To enable correct decryption of the code, and to ensure correct encryption occurred.

Using this information, a customer prints 507 all their mail items for a particular consignment. When all the mail items are prepared such that the consignment is complete, the mail is physically handed over by the customer to the mail delivery service.

Unique ID

By using a combination of an account ID, a consignment ID and a unique

ID, each mail item prepared can be uniquely identified from other mail items at any point within the mail system. In particular, the unique code is unique to a particular consignment. As each consignment ID is unique from other consignment IDs, each mail item is uniquely identified.

Manifest generation

Prior to handover, the customer prepares an electronic manifest 509 that details all the mail items within each consignment being handed over to the mail service. The electronic manifest can provide information such as, but not limited to:

Poster ID: The identification of the poster (customer).

Despatch date: The date that the mail is despatched to the mail delivery service.

Customer Job Reference: A reference number used by the customer to identify the mail item as being part of a particular job.

Service ID: An identification of the mailing service by which the mail item is to be processed by the mail service e.g. posting class, special delivery. Application: The purpose for which the customer is using the service, e.g. sending out bank statements.

Format: Identifies the format of the mail item, such as letter, parcel etc.

Class: Identifies the level of service the customer has applied to this particular mail item, such as 1^st class, 2^nd class, priority service etc.

Unique item ID: A unique reference that enables the mail item to be uniquely identified from all other mail items in the mail system.

The mail item manifest (electronic manifest) is prepared by the customer during the production of the mail items, and stored in a database accessible by the customer. The information in the electronic manifest is provided by various processes carried out during the production of the mail item, as will be explained in more detail later. The database may be, for example, on the customer premises, or may be located elsewhere and connected by a local area network (LAN) or wide area network (WAN). Alternatively the customer database may be located remotely from the customer's premises and may be accessible over a wired or wireless network, for example, via the Internet using a secured connection. Once the manifest is generated 511, it is then transmitted 513 to the mail delivery service. Alternatively, rather than transmitting the manifest, the manifest may be made available to the mail service through the provision of a password, which enables the mail authority to access and retrieve the relevant data.

Handover

The arrow indicated as 515 depicts the physical handover of the mail items from the customer to the mail service. The mail service will officially accept these mail items upon receipt of, or access to, the electronic manifest that is associated with the consignments handed over.

In this embodiment, the mail items are handed over to the mail delivery service by the process of collection vehicles belonging to the mail service driving to the premises of the customer and collecting the mail items. It will be understood that other various methods of handover may occur.

The mail items will be provided to the mail authority in a number of trays or bags, which are then placed into the collection vehicle to be taken to a sorting office for sorting. The mail items may be associated with the corresponding collection vehicle by assigning a unique identity to each tray or bag or to each consignment, and a unique identity to each collection vehicle. These identities may be provided as machine-readable indicia so that the mail items may be tracked into the collection vehicles and the collection vehicle tracked into the mail sorting centre, Processing of mail items

Upon collection from the customer, the mail items are transported to a mail sorting centre. The mail is processed using Integrated Mail Processors (IMPs) wherein the coded indicia are read 517. Data read from the mail item is stored 519 in the address interpretation (AI) database 520. The AI system then measures the compliance 521 of the information to see if it complies with rules associated with addresses in its database. Upon determining that the data stored complies with the addressing rules, the data is downloaded 523 from the AI database and forwarded 525 to the main data warehouse 527. Electronic manifest acceptance and processing Meanwhile, the earlier transmitted electronic manifest is accepted 529 by the mail service. The data in the manifest is loaded 531 into an analysis and reporting database 535 via a data gateway 533. This data is then merged 537 at the main data warehouse with the data received directly from the mail items.

In this manner, it is now possible to easily reconcile the information associated with the mail items provided by the customer with the actual mail items received by the mail service. That is, every physical mail item is identifiable through the detection of that mail item during the physical processing step as well as being identifiable by the listing in the electronic manifest provided by the customer to the mail service.

System architecture A description of the system architecture will now be provided.

Figure 6 shows a block diagram of the system architecture according to this embodiment. Referring to Figure 6, a customer 601 provides information to its client database 603. This information includes addressing and identification information for all their clients, as well as an electronic manifest that identifies all clients who are part of the current mailing print job.

Information for the current mailing print job is forwarded to the print preparation unit 605 that forms part of the mailing operation. The print preparation unit ensures the data is in a format suitable for the printers to be able to print the information. The next two stages involve a print unit 607 for printing the envelopes with the address information and the coded indicia, and an insertion unit 609 for inserting the inserts into the envelope.

The client database 603, print preparation unit 605, print unit 607 and insertion unit 609 all have data output units (604, 606, 608, 610) that provide data associated with the mail item to the main data warehouse 611 via a main data input device 613.

Once the mail items have been prepared, they are handed over to the mail service optionally either through a mail verification process 615 via mail service logistics 616, or a revenue protection process 617. Alternatively, the revenue protection and mail verification services may be bypassed. At the handover point data is provided to the main data warehouse indicating which mail items have been received. Various sorting process are carried out on the mail items such as outward machine sorting 619, inward machine sorting 621 and walk sequence machine sorting 623 in order to sort the mail item down to a granularity for delivery by the mail service. Information associated with these sort processes, such as the machinery used to carry out the sorting and the date/time of the sorting, are forwarded to the main data warehouse via data output units (620, 622, 624).

All the information received by the main data input device 613 is recorded in the main data warehouse as data entries against the unique ID of each mail item. Further sorting of mail items may be carried out by a sequence sortation unit 625, wherein data is forwarded to the main data warehouse using a data output unit 626.

The mail is then passed to postmen for the mail to be delivered to the doorstep 627 of the indicated addressee on the envelope. The coded indicia may be scanned on delivery and fed back via a data output unit 628 to the main data warehouse indicating that the particular mail item has indeed been delivered, and additionally providing a date/time of delivery and a GPS location of the delivery. Providing a scanning unit to each postman enables this. The scanning unit is used to scan the coded indicia. The scanning unit might also includes a GPS system enabling co- ordinates to be uploaded to the main data warehouse along with the delivery data. If the mail item is undeliverable for any reason, the relevant information is input into the scanner unit indicating the reason for the non-delivery. For example, the addressee may have gone away from the indicated address.

The main data warehouse 611 is connected to a data analysis unit 629, which enables the data within the data warehouse to be analysed according to certain specific requirements

Therefore, as the mail item is processed by the print, production, handover, sorting and delivery systems, it is tracked using the coded indicia. At various points during the process, scanners will scan the coded indicia and record a date and time stamp as well as information identifying the point where the scan took place. This information is entered into the main data warehouse alongside the other information associated with that particular mail item.

As each mail item enters, passes through and leaves the system, the data in the main data warehouse is kept up to date with tracking information of each mail item. The data is stored as data entries against the relevant individual mail item using the unique ID code read from the coded indicia on the mail item.

The main data warehouse is a large database that is constantly updated as a continuous flow of mail items enters, passes through and leaves the system. The main data warehouse may be a single data warehouse located in a single location. Alternatively, the main data warehouse may be a combination of smaller data warehouses linked together either locally or remotely using any available technology. In this embodiment, the main data warehouse might be linked with the database of the vehicle-tracking database in order to enable the monitoring of the mail items during the handover of the mail from the customer to the mail service.

Additionally, the main data warehouse is also be linked to both the AI database and the customer's database containing addressing information of their clients. This provides means for addressing data to be directly updated at the source in order to stop repeated errors occurring due to incorrectly addressed data being applied to mail items. If the data within the customer's databases is of a confidential nature, an alternative mechanism for correcting the source data would be to supply the unique ID reference to the customer rather than allowing access to the whole database. In this way, the unique ID reference provides an indication to the customer of the error that has occurred. The data entry would be identified from the unique ID enabling the customer to retrieve their confidential information in the database and carry out any necessary update, repair or correction work to the source data.

A customer creates a particular print job based on the requirements of the customer's business. For example, the print job may be to provide an updated bank statement to all the customer's clients in addition to providing an advertisement concerning a new available credit card provided by the bank. As previously explained, the customer may themselves have the necessary printing equipment to create the statements, advertisements and envelopes, or may allocate this task to another company specialising in preparing mail items.

A list of the customer's clients is provided as a consignment in an electronic manifest. This consignment list includes the client's names and addresses for this particular consignment. The names and addresses are obtained from the customer's client database. Due to the large number of potential clients, the printing of statements may be carried out in batches, for example, based on the first letter of the client's surname or mail address areas. In this way, a number of different consignments of mail items are produced.

The data in the electronic manifest is passed electronically to the print engine of a printing machine, which then allocates a unique number to each client within that consignment. The electronic manifest is also forwarded to the main data warehouse by any means suitable, such as, for example over a secure WLAN. The unique number allocated is a sequential number rising in increments of one for each mail piece in the consignment. The allocated unique number is then stored within the electronic manifest against the client information. The printer prints the addressing information in standard typeface as well as the RM4SCC coded indicia on the front face of the envelope. The information in the coded indicia includes the data mentioned above. Further, a code identifying the printer is forwarded to the main data warehouse to be stored against the unique number for that particular mail item.

Further down the production line, an inserter machine inserts the client statement into the envelope as well as inserting any pre-printed advertisement inserts. As the mail item passes through the print production line, the print line control engine currently scans the mail piece for OMR marks to ensure print mailing integrity. Information, such as the location of the production line, the type of machines being used etc, may also be recorded via the Mailing Manifest in the main data warehouse as data entries against the particular mail item. The mail items are placed into trays or bags and passed over to collection vehicles as explained above. Mail may be transported to mail sorting centres using collection vehicles. As explained above, upon receipt of the mail items, they are sorted using various sorting machines depending on the address indicated on the envelope and its intended destination. At each machine, a scanning unit reads the coded indicia and passes information associated with the process back to the main data warehouse for recording as data entries for that particular mail item.

Delivery of the mail item is then carried out as explained above.

Although the above description describes monitoring points at specific locations, it will be understood that there may be monitoring points other than those described above. Further, it will be understood that there may be less or more monitoring points than those described above.

The following Table 1 depicts the information that may be stored with the coded indicia of this embodiment.

Table 1

Customer Data

• Account Identifier

This contains the account reference used between the posting customer and the Mail administration.

For example, in the case of mail being delivered by the mail service, this contains the account reference used by the mail service's customer.

• Consignment Identifier

This contains an identifier relating to the posting customer's consignment. For example, in the case of mail being delivered by the mail service, this contains the 'next' enter in a list of allocated consignment ID provided by the mail service to the posting customer. Mail Service Data

• Unique Identifier Each item is uniquely identified in order to be able to track the item in an automated pipeline.

This tracking mechanism is enabled, for example, by using a combination of fields within the coded indicia.

A mail piece is uniquely identified as a combination of 'Account ID', Consignment ID' and 'Unique ID'. The combination of these three elements will allow a unique identifier for each item of a customer's mailing.

To make printing of the coded indicia as simple as possible for printers, the Unique ID is based on a sequential number starting at OOOOOOl' and incrementing for each new item in a particular Consignment ID. • Product Identifier

This field defines the product applied to the mail piece. Offline processing is carried out to provide any number of services requested by the customer. For example the following types of services may be provided for the benefit of the customer and/or the mail service.

This embodiment may be realised through the implementation of various applications. For example, one application provides improved security through the ability to trace individual mail items throughout the entire production, processing and delivery elements of the mail system. This is particular useful in the case of, for example, credit card companies who are issuing new credit cards or replacement credit cards to their clients. With this mechanism in place it is possible to trace all credit cards from insertion into mail items up until the point of delivery. Therefore, if a credit card is not delivered to the client on time, it is possible to retrieve data from the main data warehouse and determine where the mail item was last seen. That is, an error may have occurred during the print production stage or sorting stage for example. On the other hand, it may be possible to prove that the mail item was actually delivered to the client at a specific time or on a specific date.

Another application provides the ability to monitor the services provided by the mail service. That is, it is possible to determine whether the services being provided actually match up with the service requested by the customer. For example, if a customer provides 1000 mail items for delivery by the next day, a detailed report may be provided to show how long it took to deliver each of those 1000 mail items. This report is provided by generating information from the main data warehouse associated with the delivery times of the mail items. In this manner, it is possible to provide a refund to the customer if a certain percentage of next day delivery items are not delivered within time. This ability to monitor the services provided enables predefined measures of quality to be measured during the process in order to determine whether the system is running according to specification.

One example of a measure of the pipeline performance measure would be to determine whether the mail item was delivered to the destination indicated on the mail item. That is, to provide detailed information on the number of items provided by the customer that was delivered to the correct address. Again, refunds may be available if a certain percentage of items are delivered to incorrect addresses.

A further example of a measure of the pipeline performance measure would be to ascertain whether the mail item was delivered using a predefined route. That is, the customer may require that the mail items are delivered using a preferred route for security purposes. A list of the routes taken for a set group of mail items may be provided in a report outlining whether this predefined measure of performance was indeed implemented. A further example of determining whether a predefined measure of performance was carried out would be to provide a report indicating the processing time of specific mail items within the mail sorting system provided by the mail service. That is, specific items from the customer may be required to be processed in a fast track route in order to ensure that they are delivered to the customers clients in a fast as time as possible. The mail service can use embodiments of the present invention to carry out internal diagnostics of the sorting and delivery process within its organisation. That is, the monitoring points within the sorting and delivery process enable the mail service to identify bottlenecks within the system. When these bottlenecks are identified, re-routing of specific mail items within the system may be carried out in order to avoid these bottlenecks. For example, the mail items may be directed toward a different machine for sorting or towards a different sorting centre. Further, higher priority mail items may be detected prior to reaching specific bottlenecks enabling the high priority mail items to be rerouted or fast tracked via a different route, for example by using a different mail sorting machine or sorting centre. A further example of an implementation of the present invention will be to identify incorrect or insufficient data in the address information provided by the customer. For example, the address provided may not match up with the actual address of the client. Further, the information provided may be insufficient in that only a name is provided in a block of flats whereas further information is required to the specific or actual number within that block of flats. Embodiments of the present invention enable the ability to correct the data within the source database. This ensures that repeated errors do not occur. Further, it becomes possible to reroute undelivered mail to a specific undelivered mailbox associated with the customer. The customer is then informed by the mail service that a number of items have been undelivered due to incorrect information being provided from their database. The customer may then retrieve their undelivered mail, and also be provided with the necessary data to correct their address information, upon payment of a fee.

A further implementation of the present invention enables the identification of faulty machines within the print production process. For example, if a certain printing machine is printing addresses that cannot be read by the sorting machines of the mail service, for example, because the ink level is too low, the machine can be identified through the information stored within the main data warehouse against the unique identification number of the individual mail item. Therefore, the mail service is able to provide an indication to the customer that certain machines are not printing mail items sufficiently clearly enough for them to be processed by the mail service in an efficient manner thus enabling the customer to rectify the situation.

A further example of a specific application according to an embodiment of this present invention would be to provide, via an additional fee, a priority service to the customer where upon specific mail items can be identified on entry into the mail processing system of the mail service. That is, the customer would provide an indication to the mail service of which mail items are part of a high priority service through an indication of the unique identification number attached to that mail item. When the mail item is scanned by one of the machines within the processing system of the mail service, the machine will be able to detect that the mail item is a priority service piece and divert it in order for it to be processed using a higher priority process than normally processed mail items. This provides a fast track system for processing high priority mail items as identified by the customer. In another application, the ability to provide statistical reports to customers based upon numerous requirements is provided. For example, it is possible to provide an indication of whether certain items have been posted to a client or returned by the client and are being processed within the mail system. That is, because each mail item includes a unique identification number, as soon as it is scanned by the mail system its location is registered within the main data warehouse. Therefore, the customer can be provided with information associated with the exact location of the mail item. One specific example of this application would be wherein clients are required to return payment via a prepaid envelope that is sent out with the request for payment. The unique identification number printed on the outgoing envelope to the client is associated with another unique id number printed on the pre-printed and addressed envelope for return to the customer. Therefore, the customer is able to detect when the payment is being returned and so is able to inform the client that the return item has not yet been posted. Another application related to providing information within a statistical report is that of providing a list of the number of mail items delivered to a specific area within a specific time, for example, within one day of receipt. Also, information may be provided on the turn around time of items within the mail processing and delivery system. Other examples of identifying whether items have been returned by mail to the customer include that of signed contracts and payment. Further, various financial institutions are able to use statistical reports provided by the mail service in order to identify whether specific addresses are receiving a large volume of insurance claim forms thereby enabling the customer to detect fraud. Financial institutions such as credit card companies may wish to be provided statistical reports based on how soon statements are delivered to their clients to ensure that prompt payment is provided. Further, the clients of these credit card companies may wish to know if they are receiving their financial statements in a reasonable time after they have been printed by the credit card companies in order to ensure that they are able to pay their bills on time without incurring excess charges. A major advantage of the above-described system is that the information provided to the customer or mail service is not provided at all times. The mail service or customer decides which information they want and when they want it. That is, the feedback of data associated with provided is arranged to be switched on and off at the request of the customer.

Coded indicia - Second Embodiment

Coded indicia different to that shown in the first embodiment may be used to implement certain embodiments of the present invention. For example, in a second embodiment the coded indicia used may be a two-dimensional matrix as shown in Figure 7.

The additional space for storing coded information enables further information to be provided within it, which will in turn enable further services to be provided. The amount of information stored within the 2D coded indicia will be determined based on the scan rates of the scanners used throughout the mail processing environment. That is, if the scanning rate only allows a certain amount of data to be read within the processing time window allocated for each mail item, then that amount of data is not exceeded. Upon improvements in scanning systems, further information may be included to enable data from every mail item to be read from the coded indicia.

A data element is provided within the 2D coded indicia that enables customers to insert their own data. The type of information provided in this data element is at the choice of the customer. The data may be further encrypted prior to inserting it into the coded indicia by the customer to ensure that the third parties or the mail service is not able to determine what may be sensitive information.

Through the use of this feature, many different applications become available to the customer. For example, the customer may include a customer reference number that is meaningful to the customer for billing reconciliation purposes or customer relationship management purposes.

The following Table 2 indicates the data elements that are encoded with such coded indicia. Table 2

In addition to the data elements discussed above in relation to the first embodiment, the following data elements are also provided within the coded indicia.

Channel Defined Data • Date

This field contains a decimal expression of the date associated with the coded indicia. This may be the date the item was printed for Business

Sorted products or the date the item must be posted for Meter products.

The format is as follows. Format 5 numeric characters DDDYY

DDD being the day of the year. I^s January being day 1. the value shall be incremented for each day at midnight UTC. Leading blanks will be padded with zeros

YY being the least significant two numerics of the decimal representation of the year. For example, 2006 would be encoded as '06'.

User Defined Data

This field is available for customers to include their own information. For example, the customer may include a customer reference number that is meaningful to the customer for billing reconciliation purposes or customer relationship management purposes. As long as the information entered complies with the relevant UK and International Laws, there is no restriction on what is entered in this field. The mail authority has the power to stop customers placing illegal or insensitive information within the User Defined field, for example by impounding and returning, at cost to the sender, of all mail pieces containing such information. In addition, the use of coded indicia by the customer may be suspended with subsequent loss of access to the mail authorities discounted mail streams. Coded Indicia - Further Embodiments

It will be understood that with the use of 2D coded indicia it is possible to provide a unique code for each mail item regardless of the consignment. That is, every mail item created includes a code unique from any other code produced. For example, the code may be unique based on the exact time and date of initial preparation along with a unique code identifying the place of production.

Further, it will be understood that various data elements may be modified to allow data used in other countries to be inserted. For example, the date formats and mail code formats may be modified to suit different arrangements used.

Further, it will be understood that additional data elements may be used in the coded indicia. For example, the following data elements listed in Table 3 may be used in combination with those discussed in previous embodiments.

Table 3

Header Data

UPU Country Code Identifier

An identifier is provided within the code that identifies the code as a type relevant to the UK Mail Industry. This shall conform to UPU S36 and use the 2-character country identifier from ISO 3166 i.e. UK will be encoded in 3 characters as 'JGB'. These 3 characters shall be located at offset zero within the code. This identifier can be used by 2D barcode readers to determine if a code on a mail piece is relevant to the Mail industry in the UK. It will be understood that the contents of this code can be modified for use by other mail service providers in other countries. • Information Type Identifier

The fourth character in the code (offset 3) contains an alphanumeric character that defines the information content of the code. Note 'A' has been reserved for an existing Royal Mail product Smart Stamp (OLP) already available to the public. • Version

For configuration management a data content version is included. This is a single character field. Should a version of information carried by the coded indicia be changed it is intended over a short period of time that all previous versions shall cease to be used. Mail Service Data

• Destination Address

This field contains the delivery postcode in the following format. Outward<space>inward<space>DPS where:

1. Outward is one format of AAA AN AAN ANN AANN ANA AANA, where A=4etter and N=numeral

2. Inward is format of NAA

3. DPS (Delivery Point Suffix) is format of NA

4. Note AAA format outward code is the only code that is encoded without a valid Delivery Point. It will be understood that this format may be modified to include foreign addressing.

• Return Address

This field contains the return postcode in the following format.

1. Outward is one format of AAA AN AAN ANN AANN ANA AANA, where A=letter and N=numeral

2. Inward is format of NAA 3. DPS (Delivery Point Suffix) is format of NA

4. Note AAA format outward code is the only code that shall be encoded without a valid Delivery Point.

• Class This field defines the class of the product. For example,

T=First Class ^Second Class

• Format

This filed defines the format based on the Pricing In Proportion formats and weights

Channel Defined Data

• Channel Identifier

This field contains an identifier of the originating poster. In the case of a Meter product this contains the meter machine identifier. For Business products, this contains the identifier associated with the company responsible for the generation of the mail piece.

• Price Paid

Can be used for pre-paid channels such as, for example, Meter and Smarts tamp. Glossary

Entity Definitions

Attribute Definitions

Entity Name Class of Mail

Entity Name Consignment

Attribute Name Attribute Definition

Consignment Number The unique identifier given to each consignment or order

Date of Despatch The date on which the discrete physical posting is despatched by the posting organisation.

Entity Name Customer

Entity Name Item Format

Entity Name Mail Application

Entity Name Mail Item

Entity Name Order Line

Entity Name Posting Organisation

Entity Name Posting Location

Entity Name Print Job

Entity Name Process Location

Attribute Name Attribute Definition

Process Name The description given to an activity that is executed on a mail item as part of the pipeline process.

RM Location The name attributed to the Mail service premises where mail is processed

Entity Name Product

Entity Name Product Class

Attribute Name Attribute Definition

Product Name Mail service brand identifier

Class of Mail Class of mail identifier Entity Name Recognition Status

Further Embodiments - applications Database Linking/Integration

Embodiments of the invention may depend on an improvement in the linking and/or integration between a customer database and a mail service database, or at least improved communication between these databases. These may provide for automatic reconciliation of customer databases with a mail delivery database. Conventionally, a customer database such as a CRM database contains a variety of customer details, such as addresses. As explained above, a mail service such as Royal Mail (RTM) may provide a database of mail addresses and mail codes, which may be made available to customers and/or the general public. Up to now, there has been no means of checking whether a mail item submitted to a mail service carries a recipient address that has been verified against such a mail service database.

One embodiment is shown in Figure 8. A customer database 802 includes contact records linked to mail item records that relate to mail items to be sent. The link between the records may comprise an address field or general address identifier.

The customer database 802 communicates electronically with a mail service database 804 to send details of the mail items to be sent, which are validated against records stored in the mail service database. If the mail item details are validated, the mail service database creates mail item records corresponding to the mail items to be sent by the customer, including a unique ID code relating to each of the mail items. The unique ID codes are sent electronically to the customer database 802 that updates its mail item records to add the corresponding unique ID codes. The verification process may include verification of recipient addresses of the mail items. The mail service database 804 stores address records relating to valid delivery addresses, which it attempts to match to the recipient addresses for the mail items specified by the customer. If the addresses match, either exactly or to within predetermined criteria, the mail item may be validated. Additionally or alternatively, the verification process may include verification of the identity of the customer and/or verification of the customer's account status.

Once the mail items to be sent have been verified by the mail service database, the customer creates physical mail items 806 corresponding to the mail item records in the customer database 802. Each mail item 806 carries the corresponding ID code, preferably in machine-readable format. The customer then submits the mail items 806 to the mail service, which reads the ID codes and updates its mail item records to show the current status of the mail items 806. Preferably, the mail service tracks the mail items 806 through its mail network by reading the ID code at predetermined points and updating the status information accordingly. The status information is communicated from the mail service database 804 to the customer database 802, which updates its mail item records accordingly. The information exchange described above may be used to provide additional services. The mail service receives information about intended mailings by the customer (and other customers) in advance of receipt of the actual mail items 806. The mail service may therefore predict demand for immediate future mailings and may allocate resources accordingly, for example according to the volume of mailings through various points of the mail network. The mail item details may include expected submission times/dates of the mail items 806, which the mail service may use further to refine its predictions. The actual submission times/dates of the mail items may be compared to the expected submission times/dates and used to generate financial credits/debits to the customer. The mail service may compare the ID codes of the mail items 806 received from the customer with the ID codes stored in the mail service database, and notify the customer of any mail items that were notified in advance to the mail service but not received. This may allow the customer to check and possibly resubmit any mail items 806 not received by the mail service. In another variant, the customer is not required to verify mail item records with the mail service prior to submission of the mail items; instead, the ID codes are generated from the mail item details by the customer, using predetermined rules. The ID codes may include a customer ID code, so that a mail item that is otherwise uniquely identified among mail items sent by the customer will be uniquely identified in combination with the customer ID when submitted to the mail service.

Compiling Historical/Recipient Data

Although conventional mail services maintain a database of valid addresses, they do not generally keep records of delivery performance to specific addresses. As mentioned in the background to the invention, some mail customers find that certain addresses pose a high risk of loss or non-delivery, based on their own past experience.

Fig. 9 illustrates another embodiment, based on the ability of the mail services database 804 to determine status information for mail items 806, for which the delivery addresses have also been determined. The mail service compiles a historical database 804 of the results of past mailings to specific delivery addresses and/or delivery areas and/or delivery address types. The database 804 is made available to mail customers for checking contact details or mail item records relating to mail items about to be sent (subject to any applicable data protection laws).

In one more specific embodiment, a customer receives a request for goods to be delivered to a specified address. The customer checks the specified address against the mail service's historical database 804, which has stored information relating to previous deliveries to that address, including deliveries by other senders, who may be other customers of the mail service. This information may include previous unsuccessful deliveries, including reported losses. The information may also specify the type of delivery, since this information may have been provided by the mail services customers for the previous deliveries. In this way, the customer obtains much more accurate information about the likely outcome of the requested delivery to the specified address, because the customer need not rely only on the outcome of past deliveries by the customer to that address. For example, the request for delivery may be first the delivery the customer has made to that address, but the information obtained from the mail service database 804 indicates that 50% of attempted deliveries of goods to that address were unsuccessful. The customer may then decline to deliver to the specified address, and may prompt the requester to specify another address, such as a work address. The checking of the delivery address against the mail service's historical database may occur during an online transaction, so that the requester is given an opportunity to specify an acceptable delivery address before the transaction is completed. Return Mail Notification

Another general embodiment relates to a novel tracking method, in which a sender provides the recipient with a return mail item carrying a unique, machine-readable identity code. The sender requests the mail service to notify the sender (or another specified party) when the return mail item is received into the mail service, so that the notification is received in advance of delivery of the return mail item through the mail service network.

As shown in Figure 10, a customer generates mail item details in a customer database 802. The mail item details specify a return mail item 812 having a return address. The customer notifies the mail service of the mail item details and receives in reply a unique return ID code. The customer then creates a physical mail item 806 including the return mail item (e.g. a reply envelope) carrying the return ID code in machine-readable format. The mail item 806 is then delivered through the mail network 810 to the recipient. The mail item 806 may include its own unique ID code that is used for tracking as described above. Optionally, the return mail notification function described below may not be enabled unless the mail item 806 is tracked as having been delivered to the recipient. The recipient opens the mail item 806 and if appropriate, returns the return mail item 812 to the mail service, which identifies that the return mail item 812 is being returned by automatically reading the return ID code. In response to identification of the return ID code, the mail service sends a return notification to the customer or some other predetermined party, which is thereby notified that the return mail item 606 is being returned, in advance of receipt of the return mail item 812.

This embodiment may be used to overcome at least some of the problems identified in the background to the invention. For example, a company may send a special offer (e.g. an invitation to apply for a loan, or to order specified goods) to a recipient via mail, with a reply envelope. It is likely that the recipient will only return the reply envelope if he or she intends to take up the offer; negative responses to unsolicited offers are not often sent. Although the company needs to receive the reply envelope before the transaction can be completed, it is notified that acceptance is likely when the reply envelope enters the mail network. The company therefore receives advance notification of acceptance, so that documents for completing the transaction can be prepared in advance and sent to the recipient as soon as the return envelope is received. This method may significantly increase the speed of mail-based transactions.

In another example, the return notification method may be used to receive advance notification of likely payment of an invoice or account. A request for payment is sent to the recipient via mail, with a prepaid return envelope carrying the unique return ID code. If the recipient sends payment via mail, it is likely that he or she will use the prepaid return envelope. The debtor receives notification of the payment as soon as it enters the mail network, giving some degree of comfort that payment is expected. In this way, the debtor may avoid sending further reminders or initiating recovery action

Prepaid Mail Notification

Figure 11 illustrates another embodiment including aspects of the embodiments described above. This embodiment provides a simple way for individuals to track mail items. A sender buys a prepaid mail item 806, such as an envelope, carrying a unique machine-readable ID code that has been generated in advance by a mail service. The mail item 806 includes a space for the user to enter a recipient address and an electronic notification address, such as a mobile telephone number or an email address. The sender puts the desired contents in the mail item 806, seals it, and posts it through the mail service 804. Within the mail service 804, the unique ID code is read automatically, and the recipient and notification address is read using OCR techniques similar to those currently employed for reading addresses and post codes, as described above. These details are entered on a mail service database 804 and a notification message is sent to the notification address, such as the sender's mobile phone 814 as a text message, when the mail item 806 is tracked as arriving at a predetermined point such as the recipient address. This embodiment provides a tracking service that is very easy for an individual to use by means of a pre-purchased product. It has particular application for greetings card envelopes or parcel boxes.

Day-specific Mail

In another embodiment, the ability to identify customer mail before submission and track the receipt of individual mail items and/or mail from individual customers is used to enable differential pricing based on the day of submission of the mail items. In one example, a customer may purchase a predetermined quantity of mail service resource for submission on a specified date or date range. This may be performed by identifying mail items in the customer mail database 802 to the mail service, together with a specified date or date range. The mail service calculates a delivery charge for the mail items based on the date or date range, and notifies the customer of the delivery charge. In response to the customer accepting the delivery charge, the mail service generates data for the creation of unique ID codes for application to the mail items, and corresponding data is recorded in the mail service database 804. hi response to the mail items being submitted to the mail service on the specified date or within the specified date range, the customer's account is debited by the delivery charge previously indicated to the customer. For any of the mail items are submitted on a date other than the specified date or date range, the customer's account is debited by a higher delivery charge per mail item, which may correspond to the normal delivery charge for that item or a higher than normal delivery charge, as a penalty for not meeting the agreed dates. hi this way, the mail delivery service has information concerning the volume of future mailings, and is more able to plan the necessary resources. By offering reduced charges for mail received during periods of normally low volume (such as the first two week in January), the mail delivery service may regulate mail usage to be less variable with date. hi a variant, the mail delivery service may offer discounted charges for mail delivery purchased more than a predetermined number of days before the specified date of mailing, so as to encourage notification in advance and allow better planning of resources .

In another variant, the customer need not uniquely identify the mail items to the mail delivery service in advance, but may simply purchase the delivery of a predetermined volume of mail in advance. The mail delivery service then identifies the mail items received from the customer according to their ID codes, which identify the customer to the mail service. For the pre-purchased volume of mail received from the customer on the specified date or dates, a discounted charge may be applied.

Sustainable Mail

In another embodiment, the ability to uniquely identify and track individual mail items through the mail delivery service is used to determine the environmental impact of individual mail items. This determination may be performed after the mail item has been delivered, thereby enabling the customer to offset the environmental impact of its mailings. Alternatively, an offset charge may be applied by levied to the customer by the mail delivery service. In one example, a car manufacturer customer plans a direct marketing campaign for an environmentally friendly 'city car'. They wish to enhance the brand value of the car by making their direct marketing campaign 'carbon neutral'. The details of the mail items for the campaign are stored on the customer database 802, an electronic manifest is created, and the mail items printed as described above. The mail items may be printed with a 'Carbon Neutral' brand. The mail items are submitted to the mail delivery service, which tracks the mail items through to delivery and calculates the total carbon footprint of the mailing. The total carbon footprint is communicated to the customer for offsetting, or the mail delivery service charges an offsetting charge based on the total carbon footprint. In a variant, the environmental impact of a proposed mail campaign is communicated in advance from the customer to the mail delivery service, for example by communication of the details of the proposed mail items, such as addresses, from the customer database 802 to the mail service database 804. The mail service calculates the predicted environmental impact for each mail item, as well as the total environmental impact for all the mail items, and communicates this to the customer. The customer may then choose to proceed with creation and submission of the mail items, or may modify the mail item details to reduce their environmental impact. hi one example, a mobile phone company submits the details of proposed mail items in a marketing campaign, and is alerted by the mail service that a large proportion of the post codes are in deep rural areas that will incur large carbon offsetting costs. The company then determines, from historical data provided by the mail service company, that mail campaigns to those post codes have a low reply rate; the company therefore chooses to remove those mail items from its database prior to creation of the mail campaign.

The embodiments described above are illustrative of rather than limiting to the present invention. Alternative embodiments apparent on reading the above description may nevertheless fall within the scope of the invention. Embodiments of the present invention include various processors. The processors may be performed by a unit or units such as hardware components or maybe embodied in machine-executable instructions, which may be used to cause one or more processors programmed with the instructions to perform processes. Alternatively, the processes may be performed by a combination of hardware and software. As used in herein, a unit performing a process can be one or more processors, ASIC, a controller such as a micro-controller, and any other module capable of carrying out the processes. Embodiments of the present invention may be provided as a computer programme product that may include a machine-readable medium having stored thereon instructions, which may be used to programme a computer (or other electronic device) to perform a process according to one or embodiments of the present invention. The machine-readable medium may include, but is not limited to, floppy diskettes, optical disks, compact disc read-only memories (CD-ROMS), magneto-optical disks, read-only memories (ROMs), random access memories (RAMs), erasable programmable or read-only memories (EPROMs), electrically erasable programmable read-only memories (EEPROMs), magnetic or optical currents, flash memory, or other type of media/machine-readable medium suitable for storing instructions. Moreover, embodiments of the present invention may also be downloaded as a computer programme product, wherein the programme may be transferred from a remote computer to a requesting computer by way of data signals embodied in a carrier wave or other propagation medium by a communication link (e.g., a modem or network connection). It will be understood that embodiments of the present invention are described herein by way of example only, and that various changes and modifications may be made without departing from the scope of the invention.

Claims

1. An automated information management system for mail items for delivery by a customer to a mail service, the system comprising: a customer mail database identifying a plurality of mail items; and associated with the mail service, a mail service database; the system being arranged automatically to reconcile said customer mail database with the mail service database.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the customer mail database includes mail creation data identifying a plurality of mail items to be created and the mail creation data is reconciled against the mail service database so as to modify the mail creation data prior to creation of the plurality of mail items.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the mail creation data includes address data, and the address data is automatically reconciled against the mail service database so as to correct the address data.

4. The system of claim 2, wherein the mail creation data includes address data corresponding to the mail items, and the address data is automatically reconciled against the mail service database so as to identify historical delivery information associated with selected address data, such that the address data is modified in response to the historical delivery information.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the mail creation data additionally identifies the mail type, and the mail service database identifies historical delivery information associated with that mail type for the associated address.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the customer mail database includes submitted mail data identifying a plurality of mail items submitted to the mail service, and the mail service database includes received mail data identifying corresponding mail items received from the customer and reconciles the submitted mail data with the received mail data.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the submitted mail data comprises an electronic manifest that is submitted to a mail creation service for the creation of the mail items.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the mail service database identifies resources required to deliver the plurality of mail items.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the mail service database generates billing data according to the identified resources.

10. The system of claim 8 or claim 9, wherein the identified resources include environmental resources.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the mail service identifies differential billing rates associated with absolute dates of submission or delivery of mail, and generates billing data associated with the mail items according to the differential billing rates.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the customer mail database includes return mail data identifying a mail item and an associated return mail item, and the return mail data is communicated to the mail service database, which notifies the customer mail database when the return mail item is received into the mail service.

13. A method of automated information management for mail items submitted by a customer to a mail service, the method comprising: storing data identifying a plurality of mail items in a customer mail database, and automatically reconciling said customer mail database with a mail service database associated with the mail service.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the customer mail database includes mail creation data identifying a plurality of mail items to be created and the mail creation data is reconciled against the mail service database so as to modify the mail creation data prior to creation of the plurality of mail items.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the mail creation data includes address data, and the address data is automatically reconciled against the mail service database so as to correct the address data.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the mail creation data includes address data corresponding to the mail items, and the address data is automatically reconciled against the mail service database so as to identify historical delivery information associated with selected address data, such that the address data is modified in response to the historical delivery information.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the mail creation data additionally identifies the mail type, and the mail service database identifies historical delivery information associated with that mail type for the associated address.

18. The method of claim 13, wherein the customer mail database includes submitted mail data identifying a plurality of mail items submitted to the mail service, and the mail service database includes received mail data identifying corresponding mail items received from the customer, the method comprising reconciling the submitted mail data with the received mail data.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the submitted mail data comprises an electronic manifest that is submitted to a mail creation service for the creation of the mail items.

20. The method of claim 13, wherein the mail service database identifies resources required to deliver the plurality of mail items.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the mail service database generates billing data according to the identified resources.

22. The method of claim 20 or claim 21, wherein the identified resources include environmental resources.

23. The method of claim 13, wherein the mail service database identifies differential billing rates associated with absolute times of submission or delivery of mail, and generates billing data associated with the mail items according to the differential billing rates.

24. The method of claim 13, wherein the customer mail database includes return mail data identifying a mail item and an associated return mail item, and the return mail data is communicated to the mail service database, which notifies the customer mail database when the return mail item is received into the mail service.

25. A method of providing date-sensitive charging in a mail delivery service, the method comprising: receiving a request from a customer for a specified delivery volume for submission on one or more specified dates; recording the request in a mail delivery database; receiving one of more mail items from the customer; and generating billing data for the customer dependent on a comparison between the received mail items and the request.

26. The method of claim 25, including notifying the customer of a delivery charge in response to said request; wherein the billing data corresponds to the delivery charge if the received mail items match the request.

27. The method of claim 25 or claim 26, wherein the request uniquely identifies specific mail items for submission on the one or more specified dates, the billing data being dependent on a comparison between the specific mail items identified for submission and the mail items received from the customer.

28. A method of determining the environmental impact of a mail item, comprising: receiving an identification of the mail item from a customer, the identification including information relating to the delivery of the mail item; and determining the environmental impact of the mail item from the identification.

29. The method of claim 28, including tracking the delivery of the mail item, and determining the environmental impact of the mail item according to the tracked delivery.

30. The method of claim 28, wherein the environmental impact is predicted in advance of the submission of the mail item to a mail delivery service.

31. The method of claim 30, wherein the environmental impact is communicated to the customer, and the customer determines whether to send the mail item in response to the communication.

32. The method of any one of claims 28 to 30, including generating billing data corresponding to the determined environmental impact.

33. Coded indicia for use on a mail item for delivery by a mail service using a mail system, the indicia comprising data elements adapted to hold data associated with the identification of the sender's account with the mail service, the identification of the consignment associated with the mail item, the unique identification of the mail item.

34. The coded indicia of claim 33, wherein the data associated with unique identification enables the mail item to be uniquely identified from all other mail items within the mail system.

35. The coded indicia of claim 33 further comprising a data element adapted to hold data associated with information provided by the originator of the mail item.

36. The coded indicia of claim 33 wherein the unique identification is due to a code unique to the consignment of mail items in which the mail item belongs.

37. A mail item with coded indicia according to any of claims 33 to 36 formed thereon.

38. A method of uniquely identifying a mail item for delivery by a mail service using a mail system, comprising applying to the mail item indicia comprising data elements adapted to hold data associated with the identification of the sender's account with the mail service, the identification of the consignment associated with the mail item, the unique identification of the mail item.

39. A mail item tracking method for tracking a mail item through a mail system comprising the steps of: associating each mail item with a code that uniquely identifies the mail item from any other mail item within the mail system, applying the code to the mail item using a data mark, recording the code in a first database, monitoring mail items at a predetermined monitoring point within the mail system, identifying the mail item by reading the code, recording within a first database data associated with the monitoring point.

40. The method of claim 39, wherein the data associated with the monitoring point includes any one of: time of monitoring; date of monitoring, a code identifying where the monitoring point is located; a code identifying any machines that have been used to process the mail item.

41. A mail item tracking system for tracking a mail item through a mail system, the tracking system comprising: code generation means adapted to generate of a code that uniquely identifies the mail item from any other mail item within the mail system; application means adapted to apply the code to the mail item using a data mark; recording means adapted to record the code in a first database; monitoring means adapted to monitor mail items at a predetermined monitoring point within the mail system identification means adapted to identify the mail item by reading the code, the recording means further adapted to record within the first database data associated with the monitoring point.

42. The system of claim 41, wherein the data associated with the monitoring point includes any one of: time of monitoring; date of monitoring, a code identifying where the monitoring point is located; a code identifying any machines that have been used to process the mail item.

43. The system of claim 41 further comprising a second database adapted to track vehicles associated with the delivery of the mail item, the second database linked to the first database, wherein data associated with the delivery vehicle is associated with the code stored within the first database.

44. A mail item tracking database comprising means to track a mail item using a code that uniquely identifies the mail item from any other mail item within the mail system, the database adapted to receive data from a predetermined monitoring point within the mail system, the data associated with the mail item at the time it is monitored, the database adapted to store the data in data records, the data records being associated with the mail item by the code.

45. A mail item tracking system comprising production means, communication means and data storage means, the production means comprising printing means for printing data on the mail item, the printing means adapted to produce a unique code associated with the mail item, the communication means adapted to communicate the unique code to the data storage means, the data storage means adapted to provide an electronic file associated with a predetermined group of mail items, the electronic file comprising a list of unique codes for each item within the predetermined group of mail items.

46. The mail tracking system of claim 45, further comprising reconciliation means adapted to determine if the number of purported mail items within the predetermined group matches the actual number of mail items with the predetermined group, and reporting the determination to at least one of the sender or recipient of the mail items.

47. The mail tracking system of claim 45 further comprising acceptance means adapted to provide, in the data storage means, an indication associated with the unique code, upon receipt of the mail item by a mail delivery service, that the mail item has been accepted for processing by the service.

48. A mail sorting system adapted to provide redirection of a priority mail item, the mail item comprising a unique code associated with the mail item, the code adapted to indicate that the mail item is a priority item, and a redirection means adapted to redirect the mail item upon detection of the code by a detection means.

49. A mail sorting system adapted to provide rerouting of mail items based on data associated with the flow of mail items within the sorting system, the system comprising a data collection means adapted to collect data associated with the flow of mail items at a predetermined point in the system, a processing means adapted to determine if the flow of mail items is above a predefined threshold, and a rerouting means adapted to reroute mail items at the predetermined point if the flow exceeds the threshold.

50. A reporting system for reporting data associated with the processing of a mail item within a mail system, said data indicating when and where the mail item was processed, the system comprising a unique code generating means, a monitoring means, a storage means, a detection means and a reporting means, the unique code generating means adapted to apply a unique code to each mail item, the detection means adapted to detect the unique code at predetermined points, the monitoring means adapted to record, in the storage means, upon detection of said mail item by the detection means, information associated with the processing of the mail item in the mail system, the reporting means adapted to provide data to a customer based on the information recorded in the storage means.

51. A performance measurement system adapted to be used in a mail system, wherein a mail item within the mail system is identified by a unique code, said mail system comprising detection means adapted to detect the position of the mail item at a predetermined point within the mail system, the mail system further comprising a storage means adapted to store data associated with the position of the mail item based on information received from the detection means, the performance measurement system adapted to determine, based on the information stored in the storage means, whether the mail item was or was not processed in the mail system according to a predefined measure of quality.

52. The measurement system of claim 51, wherein the predefined measure of quality comprises at least one of the following: the delivery of the mail item within a specified time period; the delivery of the mail item to the destination indicated on the mail item; the delivery of the mail item via a predefined route; the processing of the mail item within a predefined time period;

53. An address monitoring system adapted for use in a mail system, the address monitoring system comprising address identification means, the address identification means adapted to identify the address printed on the mail item, determination means adapted to determine if the address is an invalid address, and correction means adapted to rectify any invalidity.

54. The monitoring system of claim 53, wherein the correction means is further adapted to correct the source of the address data so the source data contains the determined correct address.

55 The monitoring system of claim 53, wherein the correction means is further adapted to inform the source of the address data that the address provided is invalid.

56. A method of providing information about a mail item in a mail service network, the method comprising: creating a mail item carrying machine-readable coded indicia uniquely identifying the mail item within the mail service network; submitting the mail item to the mail service; identifying the mail item within the mail service network by reading the coded indicia; and providing information from the identification of the mail item.

57. The method of claim 56, wherein the coded indicia are generated from mail item information according to predetermined rules.

58. The method of claim 56, wherein the coded indicia are generated in response to verification of mail item information by the mail service.

59. The method of claim 58, wherein the mail item information comprises address data for verification with address data stored by the mail service.

60. The method of any one of claims 56 to 59, wherein the coded indicia are applied by automatic mail item preparation means.

61. The method of any one of claims 56 to 59, wherein the information provided from the identification of the mail item comprises information that the mail item has reached a predetermined point within the mail service network.

62. The method according to any one of claims 56 to 61, wherein the step of creating the mail item includes the step of manually adding to the mail item a notification address, wherein the information provided from the identification of the mail item is provided to the notification address.

63. A method of providing automated notification of a mail item in a mail service network, the method comprising: providing a mail item carrier bearing a unique identification code; receiving the mail item carrier as a mail item from a customer, the mail item including a notification address added after the step of providing the mail item carrier; reading the notification address and associating the notification address with the unique identification code, and in response to the mail item reaching a predetermined point in the mail service network, sending a notification to the notification address.

64. A method of notification of a mail response, comprising: receiving by mail service a mail item including a mail return item carrying a unique machine-readable return item code; delivering the mail item to a mail recipient; receiving the mail return item by the mail service; identifying the mail return item within the mail service by reading the return item code; and sending a notification in response to identification of the return item code.

65. The method of claim 64, wherein the mail item carries a unique machine-readable mail item code, and the step of delivering the mail item includes sending a notification indicating delivery of the mail item.

66. A method of reporting historical data representing the outcome of attempted mail delivery from a plurality of senders through a mail services network to a plurality of delivery addresses, the method comprising: automatically tracking attempted deliveries of mail items through the mail services network using unique identity codes carried by the mail items; recording the outcome of the attempted deliveries as historical data; and reporting the historical data.

61. The method of claim 66, wherein the unique codes identify a type of mail item, the historical data recording the outcome of attempted deliveries according to said type.

68. The method of claim 66 or claim 67, wherein the historical data records the outcomes according to delivery address.

69. The method of any one of claims 66 to 68, wherein the historical data records the outcomes according to delivery area.

70. A system for performing the method of any one of claims 13 to 32, or 56 to 69.

71. A computer program comprising program code means arranged to perform the method of any one of claims 13 to 32, or 56 to 69.

72. A computer program product comprising a computer program according to claim 71.