USPS Office of Inspector General

The Intelligent Mail Barcode (IMb) allows the U.S. Postal Service to track mail in real time from acceptance to delivery without the need for seeding and sampling of pieces.

The IMb is an information-rich barcode applied to mail pieces for automation discounts, free address corrections, and other services known as full-service mail, which serves as the cornerstone of the Postal Service’s official measurement system.

It has been a dozen years since the U.S. Postal Service introduced the Intelligent Mail barcode (IMb) to sort and track individual letters, cards, and flats. In many ways, the IMb has lived up to its early promise of many tools in a single barcode.

Registered Mail might seem like a service from yesteryear in this day and age of Intelligent Mail barcodes and Informed Delivery, which give customers a sneak peek into their mail via email alerts.

But with proof of mailing and delivery along with strict rules and controls, Registered Mail still appeals to customers who want to send valuable or irreplaceable items through the mail.

It’s back to the future for the requirement that all letter and flat automation mailings be Full-Service Intelligent Mail barcode (IMb) compliant to obtain discounts. Mailers were expecting implementation this week of the Full-Service requirement, but the U.S. Postal Service pushed back the date until 2015 because the Postal Regulatory Commission ruled that the mandate constituted a price increase that would have busted the inflation-based price cap.

The U.S. Postal Service recently reported that its third quarter delivery service performance results marked “all-time record service performance” across all mail categories. In particular, the Postal Service had significant improvement in delivery performance for its commercial mail products in First Class and Standard Mail. Periodicals’ on-time performance topped 80 percent for the first time since 2010, a major improvement over the 46 percent score from earlier this year.