The first requirement for Full-Service is unique barcodes. Every mail piece, tray, sack or large container has a barcode. There are three barcode types: the Intelligent Mail® piece barcode (IMb™), the Intelligent Mail tray barcode (IMtb, also used on sacks) and the Intelligent Mail container barcode (IMcb). The IMcb is used on large containers like pallets, hampers, rolling stock and APCs. Each of these new barcodes has a field called the Serial Number. This field must be unique across all your mailings for a minimum of 45 days. We suggest keeping the Serial Number unique for a minimum of 90 days, or a year if possible.
Fortunately, the Serial Numbers are specific to the type of barcode you’re printing. So you can use the same Serial Number for both a piece and a tray barcode within the same mailing. For example, if you used Serial Number 10 in a piece barcode, you can use that same number in your tray or pallet barcode as well, even within the 45 day period. There are a few scenarios to consider when implementing unique barcodes. Let’s take a look at some examples.
If you prepare barcodes on one computer, uniqueness is fairly straightforward. Many software products offer a unique numbering service, or you can specify the starting sequence numbers for your pieces, trays and pallets.
If you prepare barcodes on multiple systems, it gets a bit trickier. Keeping track of which numbers were used on which machine can be difficult and error prone. One solution is to use a centralized database of numbers. If you have sufficient mail volume, a good practice is to request several Mailer IDs – one per computer that generates barcodes. This basically turns each computer into its own standalone installation. If you can’t get multiple Mailer IDs, most software products will allow you to restrict which Serial Numbers will be used. For example, you could split all your possible Serial Numbers into equal parts, and assign each machine a separate portion.
Unique barcodes are a crucial step in migrating to Full-Service, and it is sometimes overlooked. By keeping the numbers unique, each barcode becomes a license plate for that mail piece, tray, sack or pallet, allowing it to be tracked throughout its time in the postal service.
