New Option for OneCode
Confirm Increases Visibility

Intelligent Mail® technology has become even smarter
this fall with a new feature available to mailers. The United
States Postal Service® successfully introduced the 4-State
Customer Barcode in September which means that mailers
can now request a new option for providing visibility of
their mail as it moves through the USPS® mail processing
stream. This new Confirm® service feature is known as
OneCode Confirm.

OneCode Confirm along with OneCode ACS™ service
are the first offerings that support the Postal Service™
OneCode Vision of providing visibility, sorting and
customer optional services through a single barcode. The
4-State Customer Barcode is the vehicle that realizes
the OneCode Vision for First-Class Mail®, Periodicals,
and Standard Mail®, including letters and flats. OneCode
Confirm benefits mailers by allowing them to receive mail
processing data electronically that they can use to track
mail, including outgoing mail and incoming mailpieces.
Using the 4-State Customer Barcode as the vehicle for
OneCode Confirm improves readability and accuracy in
identifying a mailer’s choice of services.

The combination of the PLANET Code® and POSTNET™
Code technology within the 4-State Customer Barcode
allows mailers to create a unique identifier for each
mailpiece with only one barcode. Using the 4-State
Customer Barcode for OneCode Confirm greatly reduces
the amount of space needed for barcodes on a mailpiece.
This results in more envelope “real estate” being available
for marketing messages or a cleaner look. OneCode
Confirm also provides more barcode capacity that can
be used for uniquely identifying mailpieces, which further
enhances the benefits of both Destination and Origin
Confirm. Destination Confirm allows mailers to know when
their customers have received important mailings such
as insurance cancellation notices, invoices, direct mail
solicitations and many other time sensitive documents,
so that they can make more effective business decisions.
Origin Confirm provides mail processing data on incoming
payments, orders or other responses that can be used to
manage cash flow, account receivables, and staffing of
processing centers.

Contact the National Customer Support Center at
1-800-238-3150 for further information on subscribing to
this valuable service.

Detailed technical information on the 4-State Customer
Barcode and OneCode Solution™ suite of services may be
found at ribbs.usps.gov/OneCodeSolution/.

USPS Desktop Shipping
Assistant Goes Global!

Customs Forms and international shipping
labels among new features.
The USPS Desktop Shipping Assistant application is now
redesigned and contains new features to save mailers time
and money. The free easy-to-use application combines
label printing and package management in one program
that customers can download at their convenience from
usps.com/shippingassistant/.

The new edition, Shipping Assistant Version 3.0,
also includes the option to print Customs Forms and
international shipping labels, enhanced address book
management tools, more user preferences and an
integrated “help” component. Another new feature allows
mailers to schedule and manage Carrier Pickup requests
right from their desktop.

“Shipping Assistant is for all mailers, but particularly
small- to mid-sized business customers who ship 50 to
200 packages a day,” said Vice President for Product
Development Nicholas Barranca. “These customers need
a powerful online shipping environment and Shipping
Assistant provides it – in a new, cleaner and more
user-friendly design.”

Barranca says the new design allows mailers to complete
online shipping tasks in fewer steps. To save time,
Shipping Assistant can pre-populate online form fields with
frequently used mailer data. Mailers can work online or
offline, print labels immediately or save them to a Shipping
Cart to print later in a single batch. And, with the Shipping
Assistant message center, customers can stay up-to-date
on news that could affect their shipments.

Other new Shipping Assistant features include:

• The addition of Priority Mail Flat-Rate boxes and large
  Global Priority Mail Flat-Rate envelopes, for a total of
  four flat-rate shipping options.
• The ability to compare postage rates and estimated
  delivery times, including Express Mail commitments.
• Domestic address verification.
• The option for mailers to review their mailing records
  and confirm shipment delivery status.

Shipping Assistant was first introduced in 2001 and is used by more than 100,000 mailers. The new version replaces Version 2.2 which was released in July 2002. For more information and download instructions, go to: usps.com/shippingassistant/.