Mail.dat

Mail.dat

Mail.dat is the standard embraced by a significant portion of the mail production industry and the US Postal Service. Mail.dat is a relational database of nineteen "connected" files describing each characteristic that can exist within a mailing. As such, the standard has contributed to important gains in efficiency, economy, and strategy enhancement.

The key to Mail.dat's impact has been its ability to facilitate efficient and process-enhancing communications. By sharing comprehensive data readily, recipients and/or end-users can accept data, interpret the data for their own purposes and benefit from the resulting information; all with an ease and in a manner not thought possible until recently. The flexibility of Mail.dat permits users to share those files that are necessary for their purpose; thus, basic users will not be as inclined to use the "optional" files as those who will be accommodating more complex applications.

Mail.dat is designed for efficient support of those activities associated with or driven by the presort inherent within a mailing. Mail.dat consists of data elements representing any conceivable variable that might be present in any USPS or Canada Post mailing (and some other elements supporting mid- and down-stream processes). The US Postal Service accepts Mail.dat as an electronic representation of the mailing and as a replacement for the traditional hardcopy documentation.

Postal presort creates packages and containers. Those containers may be viewed collectively as single or multiple jobs. The comprehensive data set can then be used for planning and execution of manufacturing, transportation, and postage payment, to name but a few opportunities.

Webinars