Intelligent Mail® Barcodes Provide Extreme Visibility

Intelligent Mail’s vision is to provide end-to-end visibility into the mail. As a first step, the Postal Service has developed Intelligent Mail barcodes that allow us to capture information about mail as it flows through our system.

Intelligent Mail barcodes:

  • Identify the owner or sender of the mailpiece.
  • Identify the mailpiece or mail aggregate to allow for tracking.
  • Allow us to encode product or service requests on individual mailpieces, or to include unique indicators for processing mail aggregates.
  • Provide sorting and/or routing information.

    We have developed one Intelligent Mail barcode for each mail type:

  • The Intelligent Mail® Barcode is for letters and flats.
  • The Intelligent Mail® Tray label and barcode is for trays, tubs, and sacks;
  • The Intelligent Mail® Container barcode is for containers (All Purpose Containers, hampers, pallets, rolling stock, etc.).

    Intelligent Mail Barcode

    The Intelligent Mail® Barcode is used to sort and track letters and flats and offers greater versatility by allowing many services to be requested and embedded within one barcode. The Intelligent Mail barcode combines the data of the existing POSTNET™ and the PLANET Code® barcodes, as well as other data, into a single barcode. Learn more.

    Intelligent Mail Tray Label

    The Intelligent Mail® Tray label is a new label format that will be used on all trays, tubs, and sacks. These new labels will include a unique 24-digit Intelligent Mail Tray barcode instead of the legacy 10-digit barcode. To ease the transition from the current 10-digit label to the new 24-digit label, the Postal Service and mailers will initially print Intelligent Mail Tray labels with both the 10-digit and 24-digit barcodes. Learn more.

    Intelligent Mail Container Barcode

    The Intelligent Mail® Container barcode will be applied to Mailer-generated container labels and is designed to be scanned at acceptance and at other points throughout transportation and processing. The Intelligent Mail Container Barcode allows each container to be associated with a unique mailing and facilitates tracking of containers throughout the mail processing network. Learn more.