Postal services method and system

Abstract

A postal service is provided for routing mail objects such as an envelope or a parcel to a designated person. A user registers a pseudo name which is displayed on the mail object. The user also enters one or more profiles into a system. Various mail services may be set up by the profiles. Mail services include a follow me service allowing a user to specify a different delivery address for a date range, a mail delivery notification service, a vanity stamp service, and a bulk mail service. Changes made in the profiles take immediate effect. A payment method may be designated in a franking profile.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0001] The invention relates to the field of Internet technologies and in particular to providing postal services. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] The type of postal service known today was introduced in 1837. Around this time the penny post began to be prepaid rather than paid for on receipt and the cutting of letter boxes in doors or the use of mail boxes outside a person's home meant that a letter need no longer be handed to the addressee. [0003] Although the postal service and the systems that are used to sort and route mail have changed since these early times, the way in which an envelope or a parcel is addressed i.e., an addressee field, a return to field and a stamp and the functionality offered by each of these fields have not developed through the years. [0004] It is only in recent years that postal services have started to make services available over the World Wide Web. For example, it is now possible to buy stamps on-line and change an address ...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0014] The user is able to access a plurality of mail services such as ‘follow me’. The ‘follow me’ mail service allows a user to define where mail objects that are addressed to a registered pseudo name are delivered. A user can modify their profile at any time and the modifications have immediate effect. A user does not have to wait several days for the service to be executed.

[0019] A further advantage provided by the present invention allows the user of the mail notification service to display a registered pseudo name in a return field on a mail object and specify an automated electronic delivery notice to an email address. When a mail object is delivered to its destination a user will be notified by an email to a specified email account.

[0021] A user is also able to block unwanted mail by accessing the bulk mail service thus, only sending a mail object to registered pseudo names who do not have bulk mail blocked. The bulk mail service allows a user to block unwanted mail is an easy manner. It will no longer be necessary to sift through several items of post to find the mail objects that are relevant to the addressee.

Problems solved by technology

Although the postal service and the systems that are used to sort and route mail have changed since these early times, the way in which an envelope or a parcel is addressed i.e., an addressee field, a return to field and a stamp and the functionality offered by each of these fields have not developed through the years.

The latter is frustrating as an addressee may be known by a variety of different names.

This time frame is unacceptable if an addressee is suddenly required to go away with less than seven working days notice.

Further problems arise when the addressee is travelling to different locations and wishes to have their mail ‘follow them’ The addressee is required to fill out a form for each location to be visited and the associated date range.

This approach is time consuming, requires the addressee to be organised, know where they are going to be at a particular point in time and it may take the postal service a number of days to activate the service.

A disadvantage of the Leber, C at al approach is that a single address is associated with a ‘Veto’ account and therefore provides no ability to provide such services as redirection to an alternative receiver and therefore can be described as ‘static’ service.

Further Knowles, C et al does not lend itself to current mail addressing formats.

While the advent of instantaneous communication such as email provides users with a high level of functionality and the concept of sending an email being equivalent to the delivery of the email, postal services are falling behind and do not provide the functionality and flexibility that email and other forms of communication offer.

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