Making it easier for customers to use the Postal Service

Confirm Smart Seed — A New Way for Mailers to Track Their Mail

The Postal Service’s Confirm service provides mailers with near real-time knowledge about where their mail is in the mailstream. To use the service, mailers use a special PLANET Code barcode on their mailpieces. Whenever mailpieces with PLANET Codes are processed, electronic records are created that can be sent directly to the mailer or accessed online from the Mail Tracking and Reporting web site at https://mailtracking.usps.com/mtr/common/index.pge. Mailers also have the option of “seeding” their mailings with PLANET-Coded pieces (e.g., one per mail tray) rather than printing the codes on every piece.

To give mailers the opportunity to refine their seeding options still further, the Postal Service has developed Confirm Smart Seed — a seeding option that allows mailers to receive Confirm information without sending PLANET-Coded pieces to their customers. Instead, Confirm Smart Seed mailpieces are addressed to the postmaster or station manager at the local Postal Service facility. Mailers must pay postage for Confirm Smart Seed pieces. For presorted mailings, mailers should presort Confirm Smart Seed pieces with the rest of the mail and pay the approximate rate based on the presort level of the package or tray in which the Confirm Smart Seed piece is placed. The mailer must also list the Confirm Smart Seed pieces on accompanying documentation and report them on the related postage statement. The mail processing equipment at the facility collects the Confirm service information from this one piece and provides it to the mailer as representative of all of the pieces in the mailing. Confirm Smart Seed mailpieces can be identified by the words “CONFIRM SEED” in the address line.

Postal Service facilities process Confirm Smart Seed mailpieces as follows:

• Processing personnel run them on mail processing equipment like other automated mail.
• The mailpieces are sorted to the postmaster or station manager.
• The postmaster or station manager discards them (regardless of subject matter).

To use Confirm Smart Seed, the mailer must be a Confirm service subscriber. The mailer will be assigned a user ID and password, which will be required for logging on the Confirm web site, All Confirm Smart Seed mailpieces must have postage paid and must be addressed as follows:

POSTMASTER/MGR CONFIRM SEED
123 FRANKLIN AVE
ANYTOWN VA ZIP+4

Postal Service facility addresses for more than 31,000 ZIP Codes for use with Confirm Smart Seed pieces are available in spreadsheet form in the Resources section of the Confirm web site for users who are logged onto the site. Postmasters and station managers should check your address in the Confirm Smart Seed file and make any appropriate changes with the Address Management System.

Please direct any question regarding Confirm Smart Seed to the Confirm Program Office at 703-292-3682.

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