Mail and Package Tracking in Today’s Mailrooms By Nick Staffieri, MCS Management Services

Ten to fifteen years ago, the biggest challenge mail managers faced with the flow of interoffice mail was to educate end-users on crossing names off an interoffice envelope. This was how we ensured accuracy in the delivery process. With the increases in office communications and the continuous demands on staffing levels, transporting interoffice mail has remained an enormous challenge.

During this first half of this decade, corporate America has seen a rise in electronic communications. The implementation of e-mail as an accepted, and now often preferred method of communication was a pathway to the declination of paper memos. Cell phones and direct-connect features have streamlined verbal communication. Blackberry devices have enabled people on the move to remain electronically connected to the business world. Multi-functional office equipment that have scan to e-mail and scan to file features has helped reduce the amount of fax transmissions in the average office environment. Yet, with all of these electronic means of communication, the average volume of interoffice mail has not declined. Interoffice mail and the flow of paper correspondence remains the only non-confirmative communication method in today’s office environment. Although there has been a growing trend for incoming mail to be imaged either post processing or pre-processing, not much innovative methods have been designed to keep track and record interoffice mail.

Every mail manager has faced the inquiry of someone sending a $5 bill through the interoffice mail system where the recipient has yet to receive it after three days. We all know that by this time, the package is not going to arrive. A typical mail supervisor may ask why someone would send cash through the interoffice mail. The question that should be asked is: What can be done to secure interoffice delivery, regardless of what is being sent? Any missing envelope through the interoffice system is a problem that can create a feeling of insecurity for the end-users of your mail service.

Mail managers continue to fight the battle of accountability in all service areas. Electronic means of accountability have long been introduced in mail centers to track overnight shipments, ground shipments and courier packages. These package tracking systems have even been implemented for asset tracking, such as audio-visual equipment, hand carts and trial bags. Just slap a barcode on an item, scan it and instantly know who has it and where it is. This barcode technology has greatly improved the mail center’s accountability measures and has easily solved many missing item inquiries. But even today, a secretary would rather send a paper document via Federal Express to the office building five miles down the road rather than trust it with the internal mail delivery route that has a daily round-trip van route to that facility. Why? Because it is an important document and there needs to be accountability that it was safely transported.

Today's package tracking systems need to be fully functional to include the tracking of interoffice mail deliveries to avoid costly alternatives. Package tracking technology can solve the problem of accountability in interoffice mail by placing barcodes on anything and everything that flows through the mail center. But the amount of labor necessary to slap a barcode on each interoffice mail item can be even more costly than the alternatives.

When designing or integrating a fully electronically accountable mail center, much thought must be placed in the investment of the technology to do so. This technology should have the capability to create and print barcodes from the origination or source party of an interoffice item thereby allowing the end-user to produce the tracking barcode for each item to be picked up by the mail center’s mail sweep. These items can then be scanned as easily as any other traceable package or envelope whether it is at the pickup location via hand-held scanners or back at the mail center for sort and routing. This interoffice mail then becomes like any other traceable package. Whether signatures are required for delivery of interoffice mail is a matter of operational procedure preference. Either way, a record of delivery should be obtained for all items with a barcode.

Further benefits of a complete accountable interoffice mail system are production numbers for interoffice mail that can easily be obtained by running simple reports on activity. Many mail managers today who do not currently track interoffice mail would even be afraid to estimate how much interoffice mail is handled by their mail center. These accountability measures can gauge volumes and trends that could determine what future direction the communication center of the organization will want to head. By fully integrating complete item tracking into a tracking system that includes interoffice mail, mail managers and mail centers can finally stop worrying about that missing envelope.


About the Author

Nick Staffieri has been an Operations Manager at MCS for the past 12 years. During his 20 year career in the mail and office services environment, he has designed and conducted numerous management training seminars specializing in motivation and employee management.