Firstlogic Inc., an information quality and mail automation software and services firm, has made available a service that verifies the correct line-of-travel sequence required by the U.S. Postal Service for mailers seeking the maximum carrier route discount rates.
The LOT sequence places ZIP-plus-four codes in the approximate order that the carrier delivers the mail. Mailers receive discounts if they presort pieces this way.
Firstlogic's LOT-Check software consists of a custom-designed interface to Firstlogic's eDataQuality service, which allows users to enter interactively a series of addresses from a mailing to check whether it is in forward or reverse LOT sequencing.
R.R. Donnelley & Sons Co., an integrated communication services provider and the country's largest mailer of catalogs and magazines, is the first company to purchase LOT-Check from Firstlogic, La Crosse, WI.
R.R. Donnelley recently presented the software to high-level USPS officials and leaders from the printing and mailing industry at the USPS-sponsored Mailer's Technical Advisory Committee in Washington.
A special working group of the advisory committee has been meeting since November 1999 to address the LOT reverse-sequence issue.
Peter Moore, steering committee sponsor and president of Peter J. Moore & Associates, said, “Firstlogic's LOT-Check solution is the kind of breakthrough we were needing. Printers and mailers feel they have had no solution for this issue. They have been subject to serious USPS penalties for incorrect LOT sequence preparations that might have been done long ago and in faraway locations.
“LOT-Check gives them a powerful tool to immediately validate the sequence of the carrier line of travel before they go into production,” he said. “With LOT-Check, the mailer won't have the cost of redoing a run and won't incur large USPS penalties, and the USPS will realize the cost savings of a correct LOT sequence.”
The LOT-Check solution is available through Firstlogic's eDataQuality application service provider Web site and as on-site customizable rapid deployment and programmable Active X utilities. It is a universal solution designed to work with any address correction and enhancement technology.
