Achieving Discounts -- New Numbers, Same Advice

Through the next decades, the need for OCR equipment changed as mail producers began applying barcodes on mail before it was presented to the post office. This “pre-barcoded” mail earned the first form of true automation discount.

However, like presort has done, barcoded mail—now with a delivery point barcode and soon with an Intelligent Mail Barcode (IMB)—has become the norm. Very few pieces of letter- or flat-size mail are in the mailstream of 2009 that do not bear a barcode.