USPS recently expanded its Surface Visibility (SV) program by deploying 5,000 cellular scanners to postal vehicle service drivers.
These scanners use GPS and geo-fencing technology to track mail movement — including arrivals and departures — and to simplify drops and pickups at detached mail units, mailer sites and freight houses.
The cellular scanners are replacing the devices currently being used by postal vehicle service drivers, which include Intelligent Mail Devices (IMDs) and Mobile Delivery Devices (MDDs).
The initiative will help USPS provide greater visibility into its transportation network.
The SV program also has been expanded to an additional 113 sites with cellular and Wi-Fi scanners and to 58 peak season annexes to provide those locations with flexible scanning technology that uses the cellular network to close existing visibility gaps.
These initiatives are a collaborative effort between Transportation, Processing Operations and Enterprise Analytics to build and leverage operational intelligence, increase efficiencies and improve visibility across the network.