Into the Weeds on Forwarded Mail
February 21, 2019   Dave Lewis

OK, we’re going to get pretty nerdy here, so you are excused from class if the intricacies of mail tracking don’t fascinate you.  But, just what happens when a piece of tracked mail is forwarded?  We can still follow it, sort of – and make some good suggestions.  So, settle on in, and let’s dive into the weeds. Let’s take a look at a piece of mail destined for Harold in Kalamazoo, MI.  It was First-Class mail, so eligible for free forwarding if Undeliverable As Addressed (UAA). As you can see, it was going along swimmingly on January 17, when the carrier walked by Harold’s house with the mail piece, but did not deliver it, because it was UAA.  There was, no doubt, a forwarding order on file, and the piece was brought back to the post office and submitted for address change processing on January 19.  When this happened, SnailWorks declared the piece “undelivered” and the Postal Service applied a new IMb for the new address.  The MID and serial number stayed the same so we could still see the piece, and where it was, but the Postal Service stopped including the Routing Code (the new ZIP+4+delivery point) so we could not see exactly where it was going.  They also changed the first two digits of the IMb to “93” which identifies it as forwarded mail. Now, we do get some clues as the mail continues its travels.  The mail went on to Pontiac Michigan for resorting, and ended up in the Page Field facility, which is in Fort Myers, FL.  We can tell when it got delivered, but we’ll never know exactly where it got delivered, because the Postal Service treats the new routing code as Personally Identifiable Information (PII) and won’t share it in Informed Visibility.  Our educated guess is that Harold is a Snow Bird, and this may very well be a temporary forwarding order.  If only there was some way to know for sure… Good news!! There is a way!  It’s called ACS – Address Change Service.  The Postal Service has Harold’s forwarding information and will be happy to share it with you for free – all you have to do is ask.  And how do you ask?  It’s just a matter of signing up for the program and switching a few bars in your IMb with a new STID.  Then you can download detailed UAA information and update your lists so you keep up with your customers.  On First-Class Mail, you don’t even need an endorsement.  Marketing Mail and Nonprofit does require an “Electronic Service Requested” ancillary endorsement. We think this is fabulous information.  You can stop mailing to undeliverable addresses, or to the new corrected addresses.  There is real ROI to this data.  SnailWorks does add a small fee for managing the data, but it is a pittance compared to the value of the data, and we make it incredibly simple.  We have a number of clients who use us primarily for ACS services. Want to learn more?  Contact us, and we’ll tell you all you want to know about ACS, and helping you find YOUR Harolds.

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