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Mail.XML Automated Drop Shipment Scheduling Services  
The PostalOne!® FAST Web Services allow customers to automate appointment scheduling using the Web Services defined by the IDEAlliance® in the Mail.XML Specification available at http://www.idealliance.org/ or http://www.mailxml.org. The FAST (Facilities Access and Shipment Tracking) system utilizes the PostalOne! system as the main communication platform with USPS® external customers.

All customers needing access to the FAST system are required to become participants of the USPS Customer Gateway, starting in May 2009. Once your USPS Customer Gateway account has been setup for FAST and Electronic Data exchange services, you will be able to access FAST appointment-related services as follows:

FAST website online scheduling - After logging on the USPS Customer gateway, schedulers can go directly to the FAST website to schedule appointments online by choosing the "Schedule a Mailing Appointment (FAST)" link. From this link, schedulers can access the FAST online application where all appointment and content information will be entered manually by the customer. Schedulers wanting to make appointments online cannot directly login to the FAST website after May 2009. All user access is through the USPS Customer Gateway
PostalOne! Automated Drop Shipment Scheduling Services - Once a scheduler has logged on the PostalOne! system through the USPS Customer Gateway the scheduler will be able to send appointment and content information, using the PostalOne! Web Services capabilities to the FAST system by utilizing Mail.XML. PostalOne! will leverage the Customer Gateway for user authentication of the Mail.XML message. Additionally, the schedulers must ensure that all Mail.XML Web Services messages to the PostalOne! system include the SchedulerID and SchedulerCorpID provided to the user during their user registration. The PostalOne! system passes this appointment and content information to FAST. Appointment availability is determined, and the appropriate response message is sent from FAST through the PostalOne! system back to the customer.

Customers using the suite of electronic services provided by the PostalOne! system (i.e. ePostage, eDocumentation) will be able to leverage their existing information (either Mail.dat® files or eDocumentation and ePostage) within the PostalOne! system to facilitate their appointment scheduling process. Currently, only Mail.dat is supported for updating scheduling content within the FAST system.

Information on Web Services messaging is in accordance with the industry-developed Mail.XML versions 2.0, version 4.0, and version 6.0 which are available at http://www.idealliance.org or http://www.mailxml.org. The new version TM 6.0 also enables information sharing between business partners such as Publishers and their mailers or transporters and also supports request/response for the CSAs. This service allows the schedulers to query, create, update, and cancel one-time and recurring appointments in addition to managing stand alone content. FAST also supports creation of one-time and recurring appointments for DMU verified customer transported appointment scheduling of First-Class, Standard, and Package Services origin entry for Full Service. Additionally, customers can query content of an existing appointment and request the status of scheduling requests, if a delay in processing the requests occurs within FAST or PostalOne! systems. Additionally, schedulers can request the Closeout Status of their drop ship and DMU verified customer transported appointments. The FAST system, through the PostalOne! system as the main Web Services engine, provides all scheduling-related communication back to schedulers.

All PostalOne! FAST Scheduling Services related guides are available through the following links:
 
 
Required Reading
IDEAlliance Mail.XML Specification
Postal Service Mail.XML Technical Specification
  • Appointment Scheduling (FAST): FAST Mail.XML 14.0A (PDF)
  • Full Service Feedback (Data Distribution (DD)): DD Mail.XML 16.0 (PDF)
  • Mailer IDs (MID) and Customer Registration IDs (CRID): MID-CRID Mail.XML 16.0 (PDF)
  • Postage Payment and Reporting (eDoc): eDoc Mail.XML 16.0 (PDF)
PostalOne! Customer Registration Reference (PDF) (139 kb) | (RTF) (1.2 mb)


Additional Resources
FAST program information
New WSDL (Mail.XML2.0/Mail.XML4.0/Mail.XML 6.0 Messages) for Production ZIP (6kb)
New WSDL (Mail.XML2.0/Mail.XML4.0/Mail.XML 6.0 Messages) for Connectivity Testing, prior to becoming Production-ready ZIP (6kb)
New WSDL for Push Data Distribution to be implemented by the customers so that PostalOne! can push the messages to their end points ZIP (6 kb)
New WSDL (Mail.XML2.0/Mail.XML4.0/ Mail.XML6.0 Appointment Messages) for Test Environment for Mailers (TEM), available for approval prior to getting access in production (To be provided later)
PostalOne! FAST Connectivity Testing Plan v.2.3 (PDF) (235 kb) | (RTF) (2.8 mb)
PostalOne! FAST FAQs (CSV) (4 kb)
Web Services Readiness Survey v.3.0 (RTF) (157 kb) | (PDF) (54 kb)

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