Data controlled mail collation system

• US 20060102531A1
• Filed: 06/13/2005
• Published: 05/18/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 11/12/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: DMT Solutions Global Corporation
• Original Assignee: Bowe Bell & Howell Company
• Inventors: Wojdyla, Richard J., Conard, Walter S., Parenti, Daniel J.
• Granted Patent: US 7,659,487 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 209/584
• CPC Class Codes: B07C 3/00 Sorting according to destination collating the pages of a book B42C1/00
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 209/90 Sorting flat-type mail

Abstract

Today, high density mailings such as “marriage mail,” Advo type advertisements, saturation mail, periodicals, and catalogs often require manual handling by the postal authority. Other than saturation mailings, where every carrier stop gets the same article, these items must be addressed. Verification of production is often desired due to spoilage and damage during production, which requires rework by the mailer. The addition of a data controlled mail collation feeder to existing or new Postal Authority automation equipment or the like eliminates the need to manually handle these difficult mail types and eliminates the need to address specific items. The manual casing at the delivery is eliminated. The data processing system that controls the data controlled mail collation feeder will also perform delivery confirmation and may assess postage due.

Claims

1. A method of sorting mail and collating flats to form stop-sequence mail for a mail carrier, wherein the method comprises:

receiving flats for delivery to mail stops on a delivery route of the mail carrier;

receiving collation instructions regarding desired delivery of the flats, separate from any material included in or printed on the flats;

automatically sorting mail in stop-sequence order for mail stops on a delivery route of the mail carrier, the sorted stop-sequence mail comprising a grouping of one or more mail pieces intended for delivery to each of a plurality of the mail stops on the delivery route of the mail carrier; and

automatically adding the flats during sorting of the mail, so as to include one of the flats in each of a plurality of the groupings of the sorted stop-sequence mail, based on the received collation instructions.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the automatic sorting of the mail comprises forming a bundle of mail, as the grouping intended for delivery to each of the plurality of the mail stops; and

the adding comprises automatically inserting one of the flats into the bundle for each of the plurality of the groupings of the sorted stop-sequence mail.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the automatic sorting of the mail comprises receiving a stream of mail including mail pieces for a plurality of routes and sequence sorting mail from the stream to produce the sorted stop-sequence mail comprising the groupings intended for delivery mail stops on the delivery route of the mail carrier; and

the adding comprises automatically inserting flats into the stream of mail in such a manner that the sequence sorting of the stream automatically adds one of the flats in each of the plurality of the groupings in accord with the received collation instructions.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the automatically adding results in addition of one of the flats into a grouping for every one of the mail stops on the carrier'"'"'s delivery route.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein addresses of intended destinations are omitted from the flats.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the collation instructions identify a sub-set but not all of the mail stops on the carrier'"'"'s route; and

the adding results in inclusion of one of the flats in each grouping of mail intended for delivery to a respective mail stop in the sub-set identified by the instructions.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the receiving of the collation instructions comprises receiving an address file containing addresses of the mail stops in the sub-set.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein addresses of intended destinations are omitted from the flats.

9. The method of claim 7, further comprising validating each received address before processing to add a flat into the grouping of mail intended for the mail stop corresponding to the received address.

10. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

detecting an address in the received file for which a resident has moved to a new delivery location;

identifying an address of the resident at the new delivery location; and

forwarding an instruction to a remote facility to add a flat into a grouping for delivery at the new delivery location by another mail carrier.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising tracking number of the flats added into the groupings of mail.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the number of the flats added into the groupings of mail is reported to a mailer of the flats, to provide the mailer a verification of delivery.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein a postage charge for delivery of the flats is based on the number of the flats added into the groupings of mail.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the flats comprise at least one type of article selected from the group consisting of:

newspapers, advertisement packages, periodicals, catalogs, padded envelopes, single sheet flyers, and compact disks.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving other flats for delivery to the mail stops on the delivery route of the mail carrier;

receiving additional collation instructions regarding desired delivery of the other flats, separate from any material included in or printed on the other flats; and

automatically adding the other flats during sorting of the mail, so as to include one of the other flats in each of a second plurality of the groupings of the sorted stop-sequence mail, based on the received additional collation instructions.

16. A data controlled mail processing system, comprising:

a sorting system for automatically sorting mail in stop-sequence order for mail stops on a delivery route of the mail carrier, the sorted stop-sequence mail comprising a grouping of one or more mail pieces intended for delivery to each of a plurality of the mail stops on the delivery route of the mail carrier;

a feeder for feeding flats to the sorting system; and

a controller for controlling the feeder in response to delivery instructions, for causing the feeder to supply the flats to the sorting system in such a manner as to enable automatic addition of one of the supplied flats into each of a plurality of the groupings of mail, based on the delivery instructions.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the sorting system comprises a Delivery Point Packaging (DPP) system or a Flats Sequencing System (FSS).

18. A method of automatically controlling mail processing, comprising:

receiving collation instructions regarding desired delivery of flats to mail stops on a delivery route of a mail carrier, the received collation instructions being separate from any material included in or printed on the flats; and

controlling an automatic feeder for feeding the flats to an automatic sorting system, to add the flats during sorting of the mail, so as to include one of the flats in each of a plurality of groupings of sorted stop-sequence mail, based on the received collation instructions, each grouping comprising one or more mail pieces intended for delivery to each of a plurality of the mail stops on the delivery route of the mail carrier.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein:

the received collation instructions specify saturation mailing; and

the controlling causes automatic insertion one of the flats into a grouping for each and every mail stop on the carrier'"'"'s route.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein:

the collation instructions identify a sub-set but not all of the mail stops on the carrier'"'"'s route; and

the controlling causes the automatic inclusion of one of the flats in each grouping of mail intended for delivery to a respective mail stop in the sub-set identified by the instructions.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the receiving of the collation instructions comprises receiving an address file containing addresses of the mail stops in the sub-set.

22. The method of claim 21, further comprising validating each received address before controlling the feeder to enable insertion of a flat into the grouping of mail intended for the mail stop corresponding to the received address.

23. The method of claim 21, further comprising:

detecting an address in the received file for which a resident has moved to a new delivery location;

identifying an address of the resident at the new delivery location; and

forwarding an instruction to a remote facility to collate a flat into a bundle for delivery at the new delivery location by another mail carrier.

24. The method of claim 18, further comprising counting number of the flats added to the groupings of mail.

25. The method of claim 24, further comprising reporting the number of the flats added to the groupings to a mailer of the flats as verification of delivery.

26. The method of claim 24, further comprising accounting for a postage charge for delivery of the flats based on the number of the flats added into the groupings of mail.

27. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

receiving additional collation instructions regarding desired delivery of other flats to the mail stops on the delivery route of the mail carrier, the received additional collation instructions being separate from any material included in or printed on the other flats; and

controlling an automatic feeder for feeding the additional flats to the automatic sorting system, based on the received additional collation instructions, to add the additional flats during sorting of the mail, so as to add one of the additional flats in each of a plurality of groupings of sorted stop-sequence mail.

28. A computer programmed to implement the method of claim 18.

29. A software product comprising:

executable instructions for causing a computer to perform the method of claim 18, and a machine readable medium bearing the instructions.