Industry Best Practices for Mail Security

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Professional mailers use well-developed security practices. This is a summary of best practices used by the mailing industry and shared with the USPS. These suggestions may not apply to all businesses. Mailers should determine which are appropriate for their company and conduct periodic security reviews of their operation to identify needed improvements. The list below contains general security concepts and a few specific examples of how to accomplish them.

Securing the Production Facility

• Control access to the plant site/work area.
• Limit facility access to employees, known visitors and escorted visitors.
• Lock all outside doors. Prohibit doors from being propped open.
• Require deliveries to be made in a restricted area.
• Restrict drivers to an area that is separate from the production facilities.
• Use video cameras inside and outside the facility.

Transportation Security

• Clean trucks, trailers, and mail transport equipment between shipments.
• Seal all inbound shipments of supplies. Record the seal number on the bill of lading.
• Use trucking companies certified by and registered with the U.S. Department of Transportation and that are fully insured.
• Seal all outbound trailers that move among mailer facilities and between mailer facilities and USPS facilities with numbered seals.
• Record the serial numbers of the seals on the bill of lading and have the driver check them upon arrival.
• Note on the bill of lading if a shipment arrives with a broken seal, and investigate the shipment.
• Use DSAS and other systems to track the location and expected time of arrival for all shipments. Investigate any delays.

Employee Security

• Maintain good hiring practices.
• Perform background checks on all employees prior to hiring.
• Make exclusive arrangements with one or two temporary employment agencies to ensure that a restricted, pre-screened group of individuals are available when needed to supplement the workforce.
• Establish an employee identification program.
• Require employees to wear photo ID badges.
• Instruct employees to challenge any unknown person in a facility.
• Provide uniforms with names and logos stitched on them for employees to wear at work. o Provide a separate area for personal items (e.g., coats and purses). Prohibit employees from taking personal items into the main workspace.

Mail Preparation

• Use tinted stretchwrap around bundles and pallets. The shrinkwrap identifies the mail as coming from a professional mailer and allows for easier detection of tampering.

Recommendations for Mailpiece Design

• Use safety seals and tamper-proof envelops.
• Use transparent envelopes.
• Use closed window envelope rather than open window envelopes.
• Use a postmark or indicia that matches the city and state of the return address.
• Use a full return address and recognizable company logo on the outside of mailpieces.
• Include a contact name and phone number or email address in all correspondence.
• Discontinue using "handwritten" fonts.
• Include a toll-free number and web site on the outside of the mailpiece.
• Use indicia or metered postage instead of live postage stamps.
• Inspect all pre-printed inserts.
• Assess use of premiums such as pens and magnets, which make mailpieces lumpy and misshapen.
• Review production processes to eliminate any substances that could be misidentified as a biohazardous material by employees or customers.

Important follow up to:
Postal Service to Retire Electronic Postal Meters

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POSTAGE TECHNOLOGY MANAGEMENT
OFFICE OF RETAIL, CONSUMERS AND SMALL BUSINESS

August 7, 2000

Dear Ascom Customer:
I have learned that a letter I sent on January 10, 2000 to all approved postage meter manufacturers has been altered to misrepresent decisions of the US Postal Service.

My letter stated that, for security reasons:
Electronic postage meters with manual postage resets could no longer be placed effective February 1, 2000. These meters have an electronic display and are reset by postal employees.

Customers with manual reset, electronic meters already in use must remove them from service when their current rental or lease agreement expires, unless it expires in the year 2000.

If these leases expire in 2000, the replacement deadline is extended for up to one year from the year 2000 expiration date. This extension should provide enough time for customers to obtain more modern convenient and secure replacement meters.

In some cases the altered version of -my January 10 letter said that manually reset electronic meters must be replaced by August 15, 2000. This is not true - Post offices will continue to reset these meters indefinitely.

The USPS is evolving to an all-digital, electronic postage meter environment. However, this goal will not be accomplished for several years. Your current meter manufacturer has acceptable, approved remote-set electronic meters which should satisfy your business needs through at least the year 2007. We encourage you to explore the digital meter world when your current meter lease is up for renewal. However, there is no mandatory requirement that You convert to a digital meter at this time.

Any information you may receive from a meter manufacturer or dealer that states anything contrary to this letter is false. Alteration or misuse of official correspondence which has occurred is under investigation by the US Postal Inspection Service.

I appreciate this opportunity to share correct information with you and would also appreciate receiving from you any correspondence you may receive from a postage meter manufacturer or dealer which contains information contrary to this letter. Should you have any questions, please feel free to contact me. I can be reached by telephone at (202) 268-2371 or by FAX at (202) 268-8893.

Sincerely,
Wayne A. Wilkerson
Manager
475 L'Enfant Plaza SW
WASHINGTON DC 20260-2444
202-268-5234
Fax: 202-268-5612

Postal Service to Retire Electronic Postal Meters

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The US Postal Service has a proposal in the Federal Register (May 1, 2000) for a plan to retire all manually set electronic postage meters. This ruling will affect those mailers who must bring electronic meters into their Post Office to add new postage. Companies using electronic meters that are set remotely are not affected, however. The proposal states that if your lease on an affected meter expires during calendar year 2000, you will be allowed to extend the lease to December 3 1, 2001. If your meter is covered by a multiple-year lease, which expires after June 30, 2001, you may use the meter until the lease expires. All other affected meters must be withdrawn at the expiration of the user's lease. This is the last phase of a plan that began in 1996 in cooperation with all authorized postage meter manufacturers to phase out, or decertify, all postage meters that were subject to tampering and misuse. Written comments should be mailed or delivered by June 15 to the Manager, Postage Technology Management, US Postal Service, Room 8430, 475 L'Enfant Plaza SW, Washington DC 20260-2444. For further information contact Nicholas S. Stankosky, (202) 268-531 1. Once the plan is final, the Manager, Postage Technology Management, Postal Service Headquarters will send affected meter users an explanation of this action and a detailed description of the retirement plan. Correspondence on this issue from non-postal sources should not be considered official.