The United States Postal Service (USPS) has awarded Siemens Logistics and Assembly SystemsInc.’s Postal Automation division a $560 million contract to provide additional software, equipment
and services to expand the Postal Automated Redirection System (PARS) to all mail sorting centresacross the country over the next 28 months. The PARS software and special mail processing equipmentwill be installed at 233 additional processing centres. The contract also includes logisticssupport services.The contract follows the PARS Phase 1 contract awarded in 2002. During the first phase, thecomplex programme was deployed and proven at 50 mail processing centres, 180 forwarding centres and16 remote mail encoding centres.
The USPS forwards over four billion letters each year. PARS contributes to improved USPSoperations by automating change-of-address forms processing, recognizing mail that needs to beforwarded the first time it runs on USPS mail processing equipment, and then sending that mailthrough a special redirection process. The advantage to consumers is that mail forwarded by PARSarrives at their new address days faster than before.
“PARS is one of the most sophisticated postal system solutions in the world. We are very proudthat the Postal Service has partnered with Siemens again to continue the USPS leadership in mailprocessing technology implementation,” said Gert Seidel, Siemens’ Vice President leading the PARSeffort. The PARS program consists of seven major projects and requires modification of almost everyletter mail processing machine in the USPS fleet. Phase 2 alone represents the largest singlecontract ever awarded to Siemens’ Postal Automation division.
