CA2173166A1 - Method for faciliting physical mail delivery using non-physical messages - Google Patents
Method for faciliting physical mail delivery using non-physical messagesInfo
- Publication number
- CA2173166A1 CA2173166A1 CA002173166A CA2173166A CA2173166A1 CA 2173166 A1 CA2173166 A1 CA 2173166A1 CA 002173166 A CA002173166 A CA 002173166A CA 2173166 A CA2173166 A CA 2173166A CA 2173166 A1 CA2173166 A1 CA 2173166A1
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- Canada
- Prior art keywords
- physical
- message
- carrier
- pick
- Prior art date
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Abstract
A method for intergrating and facilitating the pick-up of physical mail with non-physical messages is disclosed. A customer desiring pick-up of a letter or other physical item sends an non-physical message, such as e-mail or voice message, to a physical mail carrier or third party having a message receipt facility.
Once the non-physical message has been received, conditioning of the message takes place to prepare the non-physical information into information suitable for physical pick-up.
Once the non-physical message has been received, conditioning of the message takes place to prepare the non-physical information into information suitable for physical pick-up.
Description
Method for Facilitating Physical Mail Delivery Using Non-Physical Messages B~ grouud of the Invention 1. Fieldoftheinvention The present disclosure relates to a method for assisting a physical mail carrier, such as the U.S. Postal Service, by using non-physical mess~ging techniques, such as electronic mail or telephone mecs~ging, in an integrated environment.
o In the past, the business of traditional mail delivery carriers such as the United States Postal Service, UPS, and commercial carriers such as Federal Express has focused on the pick-up and delivery of letters, packages, boxes and other physical items. There have been little, if any, s-lcces.cful attempts to facilitate or assist in the delivery of letters and packages using non-physical S mess~ging means such as eleckonic mail or telephone mess~ging Thus, the physical carrier concentrates primarily if not exclusively on paper h~ntlling, delivery truck sche~ ling, and billing which, in most cases involves cash payments and physical stamps. For some commercial carriers, billing has been partially automated, but it nevertheless usually requires the customer to physically pay using credit cards or cash, etc., at a counter or perhaps over the telephone.
While some commercial carriers can schedule and pick-up packages based on a telephone call from the customer, this generally is done in a very limited fashion and certainly there is no integrated method at present for p~ g the carrier, whether commercial or non-comrnercial, to regularly restructure mail pick-up anddelivery routes, make unscheduled pick-ups and deliveries and make similar business adjustments using electronic mail. Thus, particularly at present, with the exploding volume of both physical mail and non-physical messages over various media, there is a significant need for integrated mes~ging services and methods that permit the customer to use all of these resources to speed deliveries and permit the carrier to better organize and manage its resources.
Summary In the present disclosure there is described an integrated meSc~ping method and technique that accomplish effective use of either electronic mail ("e-mail") or telephone me~ging to facilitate the pick-up and delivery of physical items such as letters or packages.
A customer desiring pick-up and delivery of a letter or other physical item sends a message to a mail carrier such as the U.S. Postal Service or a commercial delivery service. If the customer and the carrier both have access to electronicmail ("e-mail") facilities, such as personal computers, modems and communications software, the message is an e-mail message. Alternatively, a voice mail message is sent via telephone to a voice mess~ging system at the carrier or at a third party.
The e-mail or voice message, which may be sent via standard telephone lines, the Internet or other communications facilities, contains codes or other lo information about the requested pick-up address and, perhaps, about the requested delivery address. Upon receipt of the message by the carrier, or upon receipt ofseveral messages requesting physical delivery from the same or nearby pick-up addresses, the carrier is alerted and, in accordance with the carrier's schedule and requested mail volume, physically picks up and delivers the physical mail to theaddress requested in the message or in the physical mail. Carrier route codes, extended zip codes, apartment "key codes," presorting, postage, billing, return receipt and other information may also be included in the message to assist the - carrier with physical delivery. Fax delivery information may also be included in the message.
Thus, in the present disclosure, the customer's non-physical messag,e is somewhat analogous to the physical "red flag" on many rural mailboxes. The message provides the carrier with additional opportunities for physical mail deliveries (such as morning or night deliveries); permits the carrier to vary its pick-up and delivery schedules and routes by time of day and mail volume, and provides the customer with faster and more frequent physical mail pick-up and delivery services.
Brief Des ;~,tion of the D~
FIG. 1 is a flowchart of one embodiment of the present invention.
Detailed Description In accordance with the present disclosure, a method is presented that permits integrated e-mail, voice and physical mail pick-up and delivery. In one embodiment, a customer who wishes to have a letter picked up at a non-standard time, such as early in the morning or at night, places a telephone call to a central facility. The facility may be a telephone message reception and answering unit located either at the Postal Service, commercial service or a central message receipt and forwarding facility. The customer is taken through a series of message 2l73l66 prompts that ask the customer, for example, do you have a package, what is the nature of the package, at what time will the package be ready, where is the pick-up point, what is the destination, has postage been paid, etc. At the end of each prompt, the telephone m~ss~ging unit prompts the user to enter a special code, s such as #9 for package and so forth. At the pick-up location prompt, the customer enters a city, a state, street address, or zip code, or some other special code requested the pick-up location and de~i~n~ted time of pick-up.
After a certain number of messages have been accumulated at the telephone answering and mess~ging facility, the facility either automatically or0 through the aid of one or more operators then conditions or k~n.~l~tes, ifnecessary, the telephone codes into traditional mail pick-up information that isunderstandable to the carrier. Alternatively, if the particular package pick-up request is significant or if the customer has arranged for payment of a premium postage or delivery fee, then no other messages need be accumulated and the physical pick-up information is relayed to the carrier after a single instance. It is however, understood, that ordinary mail probably would not need to be facilitated in this manner and, in such instance, the message facility would accumulate a certain number of items (determined by the carrier) before the messages are forwarded to the carrier.
It is appalcnt that this provides highly useful information to the carrier enterprise. For example, rather than dispatch a pick-up vehicle to a particular physical location such as a mailbox on the sidewalk at a certain time every day,- not knowing the volume of the mail, the carrier could perhaps schedule earlier pick-ups and could allocate resources better to reroute vehicles to those physical 2s pick-up locations that have registered unusually significant volumes. Or, if the volume is low enough, then perhaps a scheduled delivery could be postponed.
An alternative method for integrating physical and non-physical mess~ging and mail delivery and pick-up facilities is the use of electronic mail("e-mail") facilities that are already widespread, particularly with the explosion in the use of the Internet for message sending and receiving among private individuals as well as businesses. Thus, for example, in an alternative embodiment, the physical mail carrier, whether it is the Postal Service or some commercial service, has available a personal computer, modem and communications software and a suitable att~ ment to an electronic mail 3s messaging network. In the event the carrier elects not to, or cannot, connect directly to the eleckonic mail mess~ging network, then a third party is employed that has the a~prop~;ate equipment readily at hand. In either case, the equipment should be more or less perm~nently "on-line" and ready to receive e-mail messages at any time from any customer who desires to dial in to this receiving PC, server or equivalent.
s In this embodiment, the carrier's PC, running specialized software, permits the org~ni7~tion and accumulation of incoming e-mail messages that presumably will be coming in at all times of the day and night. Org~ni~tion is done by pick-up location, time of day, postage, or other variables. An operator may also be present to personally read the messages or accumulate them or 0 otherwise m~int~in records of requested physical mail pick-up and delivery items .
Once a certain number of e-mail messages have arrived and have been properly sorted and catalogued then the PC and software signal the carrier either directly or through third party means that a mail volume threshold has been reached, and a new message is generated and sent to the carrier cont~ining intelligent information that has been org~ni7ed and rendered useful to the physical mail carrier. Some customer raw data may also be included. Normally, however, in order to reduce communication costs, the customer may be prompted to enter abbreviated codes for physical mail pick-up locations or the customer may be prompted to select from various screen or telephone menus respresenting physicallocations. "Key strokes, mouse clicks" or other signals received from the customer may be used to formulate a very short message that traditionally would not be understood by a physical mail vehicle driver, for example, or postal clerk, or other individuals involved in the physical mail collection process.
Thus, "intelligence" is added, either automatically through the software and ha~dw~e mess~ging facility or through the ~i.ct~nce of a human operator or perhaps some combination of both in order to condition the e-mail messages into the form of, for example, a report that could be printed and made available to the physical mail carrier driver to assist him or her in the physical mail pick-up.
Alternatively, if equipment is available, the physical mail pick-up vehicle may have an onboard mes.s~ging unit, such as personal computer or other personal communication device in the vehicle to permit the driver, mail sorter and other personnel to understand the incoming processed messages that have been sent to the carrier.
In another embodiment of the present disclosure, facsimile ("fax") information is included in the non-physical message that is transmitted to the carrier or to the third party carrier facilitating location. For example, the customer .
sends physical mail pick-up and delivery information via fax modem equipment that is common on many personal computers today; the faxed message is received at the carrier or at another PC facility; and the receiving PC either displays the fax image on the screen for inte~ lion by the operator, or character-recognition s software is running on the recipient PC to translate the image into text messages for subsequent processing by the e-mail message equipment. If the customer requests that a fax be delivered physically, such as in the form of a letter, the customer so enters the information into the e-mail or voice message that is transmitted, and the fax is transmitted. The recipient or the carrier then causes the 0 faxed message to be printed, and if postage or other delivery fee is included or has othenvise been paid, or arrangements for payment have been made, the fax is subsequently delivered to the recipient at the requested time or at a time when sufficient faxed messages have been received to make physical delivery economical and practical.
1S Turning now to the drawing, in FIG. 1 there is shown an example of a flow-chart of a method of the present disclosure. Beginning at the top, a customer desiring the pick-up and delivery of an item of physical mail, etc., formulates an e-mail or other non-physical message requesting pick-up of the physical item. Inthe present context "formulate" may take any of several forms such as, for 20 example, a series of codes prompted by the telephone message receiving unit; a series of codes prompted by communications software running on the customer's personal computer; fax codes, etc. Once the customer has properly formulated therequest, the message is sent to PC or telephone receiving equipment at the carrier's location or at a third party's location. Alternatively, depending upon2s equipment and network speed, the message could be formulated "on the fly"
without a need for two steps - formulate and later send the message.
At the receiving end, the carrier or third party, as shown in the third box of the flow-chart, receives the message requesting physical pick-up of an item. In addition, and in accordance with the present disclosure, some "conditioning" is 30 anticipated at some point after reception of the message. In the present disclosure, it is anticipated that the "conditioning" could take any of several forms. For example, an operator at the carrier's location interprets and translates the codes into physical delivery information usable by a vehicle driver, for example. Or conditioning could also be carried out by intelligent software running at the 3s carrier's location or at a third party's location to automatically translate codes into physical pick-up information such as street address, zip codes, carrier route and the like.
Continuing with FIG. 1, following reception and conditioning of the message, the carrier may determine whether adequate postage has been indicated 5 to have been paid by the customer in the non-physical message. Postage paymentinformation can take any of several forms, for example, a security code with thecustomer's name, a receipt showing postage has been paid; in the form of an electronic banking statement incorporating information such as the customer's bank account (if he wishes direct withdrawal) or credit card number for charging0 postage, etc. If the carrier' s facilities have determined that adequate postage or other fee has been properly paid, then the carrier proceeds to the next step;
otherwise, a non-physical message such as e-mail or voice is returned to the customer either immediately (if network and equipment speed permit), or at some subsequent time indicating that postage has not been adequately paid and that 5 pick-up will not be made or that the customer will be billed for the insufficient postage (if the customer so elects).
Once all of the incoming pick-up messages have been determined to contain an adequate indication of postage, then an accumulation process may takeplace, either automatically or with the ~csi~t~nce of a human operator, to 20 determine whether sufficient physical mail pick-up requests have been received by the carrier to warrant a physical pick-up of the items. The deterrnining factors may be the number of items received, the time of day, or some combination of thetwo. For example if the carrier deterrnines that one item requesting extremely urgent delivery and also carrying a high fee warrants pick-up of that item, the 25 carrier has an option to proceed in that fashion. Otherwise, the carrier may elect to accumulate a number of letters, for example, of relatively low priority before dispatching a vehicle or otherwise making a physical pick-up. The process for deterrnining adequate mail volume is a continuous one or, alternatively, as shown in FIG. 1, is accomplished periodically every certain number of minutes, and if 30 adequate volume has not been triggered at the receiving unit for the non-physical messages, then the carrier will recheck in the next period to see if the threshold has been met.
Continuing with FIG. 1, once the various thresholds have been reached by the carrier (postage, mail volume, etc.), then a conditioned physical or non-35 physical message is prepared and made available to delivery personnel at thecarrier's location for subsequent physical pick-up of the physical items requested -in the customer's non-physical messages. In conjunction with this process, of course, delivery information is also made available to delivery personnel in a form suitable for delivering the physical items to the proper street address, etc.
In the embodiment of FIG. 1, also, there is shown a step of reviewing the 5 non-physical e-mail and voice message to determine if a return receipt has been requested by the customer. If so, then the carrier proceeds with the generation of a return non-physical message to the customer by e-mail or voice, for example, indicating that delivery has been made of the physical item. In addition, if thecustomer has so requested it, the carrier sends information not only about delivery o of the physical item following delivery, but also information concerning the location of the physical item within the delivery system, (for exarnple, following pick-up but prior to delivery). If the customer wishes this additional information, the carrier may transmit the truck identification number or other physical mail storage location information to provide the customer with more information concerning the expected delivery time of the item, or to reassure the customer that the physical item is proceeding at normal speed through the mail pick-up, sorting, and delivery processes.
Following the return receipt message, or if no return receipt message has been requested, then the carrier may proceed to the next message or proceed at a20 subsequent time to check if sufficient items have been requested to be picke,d up, or the carrier may proceed to check other message pick-up locations and times ofday, etc.
Thus in the present disclosure, the customer's non-physical message is analogous to the physical "red flag" on many rural mailboxes, which flag 25 indicates the mail carrier that mail is waiting to be picked up. In this case, however, the "red flag" is much more useful to the carrier in that the carrier does not have to physically drive out to the mailbox to find out if mail is available and ready to be picked up. Thus, the non-physical messages in the present disclosureprovide the carrier with additional opportunities for physical mail pick-ups (such 30 as morning or night pick-ups); permits the carrier to vary its pick-up and delivery schedules and routes by time of day and mail volume; and provides the customer with faster and more frequent physical mail delivery services period.
o In the past, the business of traditional mail delivery carriers such as the United States Postal Service, UPS, and commercial carriers such as Federal Express has focused on the pick-up and delivery of letters, packages, boxes and other physical items. There have been little, if any, s-lcces.cful attempts to facilitate or assist in the delivery of letters and packages using non-physical S mess~ging means such as eleckonic mail or telephone mess~ging Thus, the physical carrier concentrates primarily if not exclusively on paper h~ntlling, delivery truck sche~ ling, and billing which, in most cases involves cash payments and physical stamps. For some commercial carriers, billing has been partially automated, but it nevertheless usually requires the customer to physically pay using credit cards or cash, etc., at a counter or perhaps over the telephone.
While some commercial carriers can schedule and pick-up packages based on a telephone call from the customer, this generally is done in a very limited fashion and certainly there is no integrated method at present for p~ g the carrier, whether commercial or non-comrnercial, to regularly restructure mail pick-up anddelivery routes, make unscheduled pick-ups and deliveries and make similar business adjustments using electronic mail. Thus, particularly at present, with the exploding volume of both physical mail and non-physical messages over various media, there is a significant need for integrated mes~ging services and methods that permit the customer to use all of these resources to speed deliveries and permit the carrier to better organize and manage its resources.
Summary In the present disclosure there is described an integrated meSc~ping method and technique that accomplish effective use of either electronic mail ("e-mail") or telephone me~ging to facilitate the pick-up and delivery of physical items such as letters or packages.
A customer desiring pick-up and delivery of a letter or other physical item sends a message to a mail carrier such as the U.S. Postal Service or a commercial delivery service. If the customer and the carrier both have access to electronicmail ("e-mail") facilities, such as personal computers, modems and communications software, the message is an e-mail message. Alternatively, a voice mail message is sent via telephone to a voice mess~ging system at the carrier or at a third party.
The e-mail or voice message, which may be sent via standard telephone lines, the Internet or other communications facilities, contains codes or other lo information about the requested pick-up address and, perhaps, about the requested delivery address. Upon receipt of the message by the carrier, or upon receipt ofseveral messages requesting physical delivery from the same or nearby pick-up addresses, the carrier is alerted and, in accordance with the carrier's schedule and requested mail volume, physically picks up and delivers the physical mail to theaddress requested in the message or in the physical mail. Carrier route codes, extended zip codes, apartment "key codes," presorting, postage, billing, return receipt and other information may also be included in the message to assist the - carrier with physical delivery. Fax delivery information may also be included in the message.
Thus, in the present disclosure, the customer's non-physical messag,e is somewhat analogous to the physical "red flag" on many rural mailboxes. The message provides the carrier with additional opportunities for physical mail deliveries (such as morning or night deliveries); permits the carrier to vary its pick-up and delivery schedules and routes by time of day and mail volume, and provides the customer with faster and more frequent physical mail pick-up and delivery services.
Brief Des ;~,tion of the D~
FIG. 1 is a flowchart of one embodiment of the present invention.
Detailed Description In accordance with the present disclosure, a method is presented that permits integrated e-mail, voice and physical mail pick-up and delivery. In one embodiment, a customer who wishes to have a letter picked up at a non-standard time, such as early in the morning or at night, places a telephone call to a central facility. The facility may be a telephone message reception and answering unit located either at the Postal Service, commercial service or a central message receipt and forwarding facility. The customer is taken through a series of message 2l73l66 prompts that ask the customer, for example, do you have a package, what is the nature of the package, at what time will the package be ready, where is the pick-up point, what is the destination, has postage been paid, etc. At the end of each prompt, the telephone m~ss~ging unit prompts the user to enter a special code, s such as #9 for package and so forth. At the pick-up location prompt, the customer enters a city, a state, street address, or zip code, or some other special code requested the pick-up location and de~i~n~ted time of pick-up.
After a certain number of messages have been accumulated at the telephone answering and mess~ging facility, the facility either automatically or0 through the aid of one or more operators then conditions or k~n.~l~tes, ifnecessary, the telephone codes into traditional mail pick-up information that isunderstandable to the carrier. Alternatively, if the particular package pick-up request is significant or if the customer has arranged for payment of a premium postage or delivery fee, then no other messages need be accumulated and the physical pick-up information is relayed to the carrier after a single instance. It is however, understood, that ordinary mail probably would not need to be facilitated in this manner and, in such instance, the message facility would accumulate a certain number of items (determined by the carrier) before the messages are forwarded to the carrier.
It is appalcnt that this provides highly useful information to the carrier enterprise. For example, rather than dispatch a pick-up vehicle to a particular physical location such as a mailbox on the sidewalk at a certain time every day,- not knowing the volume of the mail, the carrier could perhaps schedule earlier pick-ups and could allocate resources better to reroute vehicles to those physical 2s pick-up locations that have registered unusually significant volumes. Or, if the volume is low enough, then perhaps a scheduled delivery could be postponed.
An alternative method for integrating physical and non-physical mess~ging and mail delivery and pick-up facilities is the use of electronic mail("e-mail") facilities that are already widespread, particularly with the explosion in the use of the Internet for message sending and receiving among private individuals as well as businesses. Thus, for example, in an alternative embodiment, the physical mail carrier, whether it is the Postal Service or some commercial service, has available a personal computer, modem and communications software and a suitable att~ ment to an electronic mail 3s messaging network. In the event the carrier elects not to, or cannot, connect directly to the eleckonic mail mess~ging network, then a third party is employed that has the a~prop~;ate equipment readily at hand. In either case, the equipment should be more or less perm~nently "on-line" and ready to receive e-mail messages at any time from any customer who desires to dial in to this receiving PC, server or equivalent.
s In this embodiment, the carrier's PC, running specialized software, permits the org~ni7~tion and accumulation of incoming e-mail messages that presumably will be coming in at all times of the day and night. Org~ni~tion is done by pick-up location, time of day, postage, or other variables. An operator may also be present to personally read the messages or accumulate them or 0 otherwise m~int~in records of requested physical mail pick-up and delivery items .
Once a certain number of e-mail messages have arrived and have been properly sorted and catalogued then the PC and software signal the carrier either directly or through third party means that a mail volume threshold has been reached, and a new message is generated and sent to the carrier cont~ining intelligent information that has been org~ni7ed and rendered useful to the physical mail carrier. Some customer raw data may also be included. Normally, however, in order to reduce communication costs, the customer may be prompted to enter abbreviated codes for physical mail pick-up locations or the customer may be prompted to select from various screen or telephone menus respresenting physicallocations. "Key strokes, mouse clicks" or other signals received from the customer may be used to formulate a very short message that traditionally would not be understood by a physical mail vehicle driver, for example, or postal clerk, or other individuals involved in the physical mail collection process.
Thus, "intelligence" is added, either automatically through the software and ha~dw~e mess~ging facility or through the ~i.ct~nce of a human operator or perhaps some combination of both in order to condition the e-mail messages into the form of, for example, a report that could be printed and made available to the physical mail carrier driver to assist him or her in the physical mail pick-up.
Alternatively, if equipment is available, the physical mail pick-up vehicle may have an onboard mes.s~ging unit, such as personal computer or other personal communication device in the vehicle to permit the driver, mail sorter and other personnel to understand the incoming processed messages that have been sent to the carrier.
In another embodiment of the present disclosure, facsimile ("fax") information is included in the non-physical message that is transmitted to the carrier or to the third party carrier facilitating location. For example, the customer .
sends physical mail pick-up and delivery information via fax modem equipment that is common on many personal computers today; the faxed message is received at the carrier or at another PC facility; and the receiving PC either displays the fax image on the screen for inte~ lion by the operator, or character-recognition s software is running on the recipient PC to translate the image into text messages for subsequent processing by the e-mail message equipment. If the customer requests that a fax be delivered physically, such as in the form of a letter, the customer so enters the information into the e-mail or voice message that is transmitted, and the fax is transmitted. The recipient or the carrier then causes the 0 faxed message to be printed, and if postage or other delivery fee is included or has othenvise been paid, or arrangements for payment have been made, the fax is subsequently delivered to the recipient at the requested time or at a time when sufficient faxed messages have been received to make physical delivery economical and practical.
1S Turning now to the drawing, in FIG. 1 there is shown an example of a flow-chart of a method of the present disclosure. Beginning at the top, a customer desiring the pick-up and delivery of an item of physical mail, etc., formulates an e-mail or other non-physical message requesting pick-up of the physical item. Inthe present context "formulate" may take any of several forms such as, for 20 example, a series of codes prompted by the telephone message receiving unit; a series of codes prompted by communications software running on the customer's personal computer; fax codes, etc. Once the customer has properly formulated therequest, the message is sent to PC or telephone receiving equipment at the carrier's location or at a third party's location. Alternatively, depending upon2s equipment and network speed, the message could be formulated "on the fly"
without a need for two steps - formulate and later send the message.
At the receiving end, the carrier or third party, as shown in the third box of the flow-chart, receives the message requesting physical pick-up of an item. In addition, and in accordance with the present disclosure, some "conditioning" is 30 anticipated at some point after reception of the message. In the present disclosure, it is anticipated that the "conditioning" could take any of several forms. For example, an operator at the carrier's location interprets and translates the codes into physical delivery information usable by a vehicle driver, for example. Or conditioning could also be carried out by intelligent software running at the 3s carrier's location or at a third party's location to automatically translate codes into physical pick-up information such as street address, zip codes, carrier route and the like.
Continuing with FIG. 1, following reception and conditioning of the message, the carrier may determine whether adequate postage has been indicated 5 to have been paid by the customer in the non-physical message. Postage paymentinformation can take any of several forms, for example, a security code with thecustomer's name, a receipt showing postage has been paid; in the form of an electronic banking statement incorporating information such as the customer's bank account (if he wishes direct withdrawal) or credit card number for charging0 postage, etc. If the carrier' s facilities have determined that adequate postage or other fee has been properly paid, then the carrier proceeds to the next step;
otherwise, a non-physical message such as e-mail or voice is returned to the customer either immediately (if network and equipment speed permit), or at some subsequent time indicating that postage has not been adequately paid and that 5 pick-up will not be made or that the customer will be billed for the insufficient postage (if the customer so elects).
Once all of the incoming pick-up messages have been determined to contain an adequate indication of postage, then an accumulation process may takeplace, either automatically or with the ~csi~t~nce of a human operator, to 20 determine whether sufficient physical mail pick-up requests have been received by the carrier to warrant a physical pick-up of the items. The deterrnining factors may be the number of items received, the time of day, or some combination of thetwo. For example if the carrier deterrnines that one item requesting extremely urgent delivery and also carrying a high fee warrants pick-up of that item, the 25 carrier has an option to proceed in that fashion. Otherwise, the carrier may elect to accumulate a number of letters, for example, of relatively low priority before dispatching a vehicle or otherwise making a physical pick-up. The process for deterrnining adequate mail volume is a continuous one or, alternatively, as shown in FIG. 1, is accomplished periodically every certain number of minutes, and if 30 adequate volume has not been triggered at the receiving unit for the non-physical messages, then the carrier will recheck in the next period to see if the threshold has been met.
Continuing with FIG. 1, once the various thresholds have been reached by the carrier (postage, mail volume, etc.), then a conditioned physical or non-35 physical message is prepared and made available to delivery personnel at thecarrier's location for subsequent physical pick-up of the physical items requested -in the customer's non-physical messages. In conjunction with this process, of course, delivery information is also made available to delivery personnel in a form suitable for delivering the physical items to the proper street address, etc.
In the embodiment of FIG. 1, also, there is shown a step of reviewing the 5 non-physical e-mail and voice message to determine if a return receipt has been requested by the customer. If so, then the carrier proceeds with the generation of a return non-physical message to the customer by e-mail or voice, for example, indicating that delivery has been made of the physical item. In addition, if thecustomer has so requested it, the carrier sends information not only about delivery o of the physical item following delivery, but also information concerning the location of the physical item within the delivery system, (for exarnple, following pick-up but prior to delivery). If the customer wishes this additional information, the carrier may transmit the truck identification number or other physical mail storage location information to provide the customer with more information concerning the expected delivery time of the item, or to reassure the customer that the physical item is proceeding at normal speed through the mail pick-up, sorting, and delivery processes.
Following the return receipt message, or if no return receipt message has been requested, then the carrier may proceed to the next message or proceed at a20 subsequent time to check if sufficient items have been requested to be picke,d up, or the carrier may proceed to check other message pick-up locations and times ofday, etc.
Thus in the present disclosure, the customer's non-physical message is analogous to the physical "red flag" on many rural mailboxes, which flag 25 indicates the mail carrier that mail is waiting to be picked up. In this case, however, the "red flag" is much more useful to the carrier in that the carrier does not have to physically drive out to the mailbox to find out if mail is available and ready to be picked up. Thus, the non-physical messages in the present disclosureprovide the carrier with additional opportunities for physical mail pick-ups (such 30 as morning or night pick-ups); permits the carrier to vary its pick-up and delivery schedules and routes by time of day and mail volume; and provides the customer with faster and more frequent physical mail delivery services period.
Claims (9)
1. A method for facilitating the process of physical mail pick-up, comprising the steps of:
a customer sending a non-physical message to a message receipt facility, said non-physical message containing physical mail pick-up information;
the receipt facility receiving and conditioning said information for use by a physical mail carrier; and the receipt facility providing information to said carrier that contains said pick-up information.
a customer sending a non-physical message to a message receipt facility, said non-physical message containing physical mail pick-up information;
the receipt facility receiving and conditioning said information for use by a physical mail carrier; and the receipt facility providing information to said carrier that contains said pick-up information.
2 The method of claim 1, in which said non-physical message comprises an electronic-mail message.
3 The method of claim 1, in which said non-physical message comprises a voice-mail message.
4. The method of claim 1, in which a return non-physical message containing delivery information is sent back to said customer following the delivery or attempt to deliver said physical mail.
5. The method of claim 1, in which said non-physical message includes a code which indicates that postage was paid by said customer for said delivery ofsaid physical mail.
6. The method of claim 1, in which said non-physical message includes a code indicating carrier route information of said physical mail that is to be picked up.
7. The method of claim 1, in which said information sent to said carrier includes a code indicating carrier route information of said physical mail that is to be picked up.
8. The method of claim 4, in which said return non-physical message comprises a return electronic-mail message.
9. The method of claim 4, in which said return non-physical message comprises a return voice-mail message.
Applications Claiming Priority (2)
| Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| US46039895A | 1995-05-31 | 1995-05-31 | |
| US460,398 | 1995-05-31 |
Publications (1)
| Publication Number | Publication Date |
|---|---|
| CA2173166A1 true CA2173166A1 (en) | 1996-12-01 |
Family
ID=23828545
Family Applications (1)
| Application Number | Title | Priority Date | Filing Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| CA002173166A Abandoned CA2173166A1 (en) | 1995-05-31 | 1996-04-01 | Method for faciliting physical mail delivery using non-physical messages |
Country Status (2)
| Country | Link |
|---|---|
| JP (1) | JPH08331172A (en) |
| CA (1) | CA2173166A1 (en) |
Cited By (1)
| Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US6859787B2 (en) | 1996-08-08 | 2005-02-22 | Ebay, Inc. | Method and system for providing order status information using an update status flag |
-
1996
- 1996-04-01 CA CA002173166A patent/CA2173166A1/en not_active Abandoned
- 1996-05-31 JP JP8137337A patent/JPH08331172A/en not_active Withdrawn
Cited By (8)
| Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US6859787B2 (en) | 1996-08-08 | 2005-02-22 | Ebay, Inc. | Method and system for providing order status information using an update status flag |
| US7130818B2 (en) | 1996-08-08 | 2006-10-31 | Ebay, Inc. | Method and system for providing order status information using a network address |
| US7139726B2 (en) | 1996-08-08 | 2006-11-21 | Ebay Inc. | Method and system for supplying automatic status updates using electronic mail |
| US7596510B2 (en) | 1996-08-08 | 2009-09-29 | Ebay Inc. | Method, system and apparatus for requesting status information from a common carrier |
| US7801767B2 (en) | 1996-08-08 | 2010-09-21 | Ebay Inc. | Method and system for providing order status information using an update status flag |
| US8078504B2 (en) | 1996-08-08 | 2011-12-13 | Ebay Inc. | Method and system for providing order status information using an update status flag |
| US8180683B2 (en) | 1996-08-08 | 2012-05-15 | Ebay Inc. | Method and system for providing order status information using an update status flag |
| US8630914B2 (en) | 1996-08-08 | 2014-01-14 | Ebay Inc. | Method and system for providing order status information using an update status flag |
Also Published As
| Publication number | Publication date |
|---|---|
| JPH08331172A (en) | 1996-12-13 |
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Legal Events
| Date | Code | Title | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| EEER | Examination request | ||
| FZDE | Dead |