USPS offers digital Informed Delivery service

Informed Delivery is a free service of the United States Postal Service -- now available -- aimed at providing residential customers options to digitally preview and manage their incoming letter-sized mail and packages on a computer or mobile device.

USPS strategic communications specialist Stacy St John said the service originally started as a pilot on the East Coast in a couple of mailing districts.

"They tested it there for almost two years just to see the functionality and work through any bugs or issues," St John said. "They made all the adjustments, and we rolled it out last spring, nationwide."

St John said she believes it to be available to anyone with an address now, in addition to some PO boxes. Business addresses aren't available for the service yet, but she said it's expected in the near future.

St John said the USPS Informed Delivery service has nearly 8 million nationwide users.

"We want all Americans, all people with an address, to know that the service is out there and they can manage their mail through the app or usps.com," she said.

Subscribers receive daily email notifications informing them of the mail or packages expected throughout the day after opting in at USPS.com or at their local post office.

"I get my email around 7:30 a.m.," St John said.

Customers "love it," she said, because if no mail is expected on any particular day, no email is sent and no trip to their local post office is required. If they are expecting mail, "they know it's there," she said.

"Mailers are using this technology to be informed of when items have reached their customers," St. John said. "It's kind of a two-fold added benefit for mailers and customers."

St John said a company sending mail already has access to the customer on the receiving end, so no additional personal information is made available.

"They do not see anything else that that customer is receiving," she said.

She said the USPS has been taking photos of mail for many years for sorting purposes.

Capturing a photo of the address initially allowed the USPS to place mail in the correct order for delivery, she said.

And that technology, she said, gave the USPS the idea to use the information already being collected, to provide customers "some visibility of what's coming to their mailbox."

"Mailers have an app they use called Informed Visibility," St John said. "They don't see the pieces going into the customer's mail. They get a confirmation that their mail piece is in their customer's box. That's it. That's all they receive."

She said companies sending out the mailers only know when they've placed a mailing in the USPS mail systems and the day it arrives for customers.

"They just get a report; a percentage of how much of their mail gets delivered each day," she said. "It's very secure."

St John explained when signing up, a customer must be an authorized recipient of mail at the specified address, which is linked to the designated USPS.com account along with the Informed Delivery service.

She said the USPS strives to stay at the forefront of technology because they know "that's what customers want."

"It will always be free," she said. "We want to keep them informed and we want to use technology to do it while preserving the mail piece. That's the motive behind it."

St. John said if a customer is interested in signing up for the service and chooses not to do so online, it can be done with handheld devices at USPS locations.

jhartwig@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3632