Using the DAT-MAIL/Tagger Interface - The Difference between Splitting and Siblings

When inaccurate mail piece thickness is provided to a presort program, the number of pieces that should fit in the trays defined may not fit after all. In some cases, mailers may have to rerun the presort but this is not always possible or practical. When more trays are needed, it is possible to use the Whittier Barcode Tagger to create the extra trays and have DAT-MAIL update the Mail.dats so these trays are documented to maintain Full Service Intelligent Mail compliance. The Tagger / DAT-MAIL software and interface can actually do this in two different ways: 1) Creating “sibling” trays and pallets; and 2) “Splitting” trays. This section describes how each works and at the advantages and disadvantages of each approach. How each is treated by PostalOne! is different and this is covered in more detail in How PostalOne! Handles Sibling and Split Trays.

Siblings

A sibling container is associated with an original container but does not define the content of the original tray. Essentially you are telling the USPS that the contents of the original tray or pallet is now spread out across multiple trays or pallets but the sum of these will add up to the content defined of the original tray or pallet. The purpose of a sibling is to pass additional barcode information up to Full Service and to change the tray and pallet counts of postage statements generated by PostalOne! (which needs to be fixed at the present time). Creating a sibling with the Tagger/DAT-MAIL interface is very easy: Just scan the original tray or pallet and out comes the additional tray tag or pallet label and the data will get updated to your Mail.dat. Limitation: Third party consolidators that offer tray copalletization services cannot accept jobs that include siblings for copalletization.

Advantages: Easy - No special production process is needed, a 1D barcode scanner can be used and you can add siblings to the second or subsequent part of a partial mailing (see How PostalOne! Handles Sibling and Split Trays)
Disadvantages: You may need to print supplemental documentation on jobs which contain sibling containers to help with verification. PostalOne! postage statements will not include sibling trays and pallets until ETR is corrected. Cannot be used with third party copalletization services or with most DSMS consolidators.

Tray Splitting

The process of splitting a tray is very much like creating a sibling but the difference is that the contents of the original tray will be revised and the content of the new tray will be defined. This way PostalOne! and other supply chain recipients of this data such as logistics companies will see these new trays as ordinary trays. When mail is verified, the new tags will still show that they are siblings since it would be difficult to update Printer Line information on the new tag and you would also have to replace the original tray tag you scanned with an updated tag. Once the mail has been verified, the fact that contents of both original and new tray records in Mail.dat are accurate allows these trays to be copalletized by third parties.

Advantages: You can use third party palletization services and DSMS consolidators. New trays will appear on the USPS qualification report, and they will appear on PostalOne! Postage Statements even before the ETR is corrected so in most cases no supplemental documentation will be needed.
Disadvantages: Requires a 2D imager which costs about $100 more than a handheld laser scanner. New trays must be produced in a specific way (see image below), and Mailers that produce a job over a period of days and mail over a period of days may need to split these Mail.dats in order to get all new trays to be split vs. being processed as siblings (see How PostalOne! Handles Sibling and Split Trays).

When you produce trays that will be split, it is very important that the pieces you move to the new tray would ordinarily be the last pieces that would fit in the original tray. It is important that the pieces that follow the first piece in the new tray would have followed that piece had all the pieces fit in the original tray.

Do not move the pieces that are in the front of the Original tray to the New tray when doing tray splitting! Move the pieces that would have been in the back of the tray.

Continue Using the DAT-MAIL/Tagger Interface - Printing Sibling Trays and Pallet Tags with the Tagger