Postal presorting using an occurrence table
First Claim
1. A method of allocating addresses in a mailing list to maximize a postal presort discount, comprising:
- preparing an occurrence table from an address record that includes counts for first and second zip codes before generation of mail pieces;
then associating individual ones of the addresses to first and second mailing containers according to an algorithm that maximizes the postal presort discount by optimizing the minimum number of containers as a function of the counts;
then printing addresses on the mail pieces corresponding to the first and second containers; and
distributing the mail pieces into the corresponding first and second containers.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A computer system utilizes an algorithm that: (a) prepares a table that includes counts of zip code occurrences in a mailing list; (b) prepares a container list that allocates counts to different containers; (c) uses the container list to allocate individual addresses to different mailing containers; and (d) addresses the mailing pieces (directly or by labels) according to the addresses associated with the various containers. Such configurations can advantageously decrease the time required to sort an extremely large mailing into mailing containers according to postal presort levels, among other things by performing the above steps predominantly in the internal memory of the computer system.
15 Citations
13 Claims
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1. A method of allocating addresses in a mailing list to maximize a postal presort discount, comprising:
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preparing an occurrence table from an address record that includes counts for first and second zip codes before generation of mail pieces; then associating individual ones of the addresses to first and second mailing containers according to an algorithm that maximizes the postal presort discount by optimizing the minimum number of containers as a function of the counts; then printing addresses on the mail pieces corresponding to the first and second containers; and distributing the mail pieces into the corresponding first and second containers. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
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Specification