HK1201229B - Method of tracking postal items to measure the travel time in a postal sorting network - Google Patents

Abstract

A method for tracking mail in a postal sorting system comprising first, second networks (1, 2) of sorting machines (11, 21) with a first, second unique identification protocol for the items (3), the first, second networks (1, 2) producing first, second dated tracking data (DS) as and when an item (3) is conveyed through the sorting machines (11, 21) associated with a first, second unique item identifier (Id-Tag Post Out, Id-Tag Post In) generated according to the first, second protocol, said dated data (DS) associated with said first, second unique item identifiers (Id-Tag Post Out, Id-Tag Post In) are recovered in a data processing unit (30) for the purposes of measuring a temporal characteristic of the transit of said item (3) through the first, second networks (1, 2) and a correspondence is established between said first and second unique item identifiers (Id-Tag Post Out, Id-Tag Post In) by way of digital images (IM1, IM2) of said item (3).

Description

Technical field

The field of invention is that of automatic sorting of postal items, which may be letters, magazines or newspapers in plastic or paper envelopes, and generally flat objects of small and large size or packages.

The invention relates in particular to a method for tracking mail in a postal sorting system with a view in particular to measuring the time taken by the mail to travel through the sorting system.

Previous technique

Mail tracking is a measure of the quality of service provided by the Post Office. A mail sender such as the Post Office needs to know the actual delivery time and track the mail between delivery of the mail to the departure post office and delivery to the recipient by the courier. This delivery time depends on the time of automatic processing of the mail in the various sorting machines the mail passes through.

A known technique for tracking and measuring mail travel time is to use a test letter, i.e. a special letter equipped with an RFID chip bearing a unique identifier. Portals are placed at key test letter passage points in the sorting machine network, such as at the entrance or exit of sorting rooms. Each gate detects the passage of the test letter, which is most often in a handling bin, and tracks back tracking data to a remote data server. This data typically indicates the location of the detection and the date and time of the detection.The location of detection can be a gateway identifier or similar. From a track record of data, the time taken for the test letter to travel between the time it is put in the mail and the time it is delivered to the recipient can be estimated. This technique is complicated and expensive to implement because it requires additional material resources on sorting facilities.

In the US patent document 7,991,704, a mail tracking process is described designed for multi-postal networks, i.e. on several different networks of sorting machines belonging to different Post Offices. This involves tracking the times of delivery of so-called international mail. In this context, each network of sorting machines has its own unique protocol for identifying shipments and the different protocols are generally very different and incompatible with each other.The different sending ID codes generated with the different protocols of the sorting machine networks considered. These different ID codes are affixed to the letter before it is introduced into the sorting machine networks. When the letter passes through a certain sorting machine network, it therefore carries an ID code that is readable and recognizable by the network machines and tracking data can therefore be retrieved on a data server in association with this ID code. But this technology has the disadvantage of having a letter overloaded with ID codes which is detrimental to automatic OCR processing for distribution address recognition.This letter is therefore likely to be sent in poor condition through the various network sorting machines and therefore the tracking data collected for this letter are not necessarily representative for a quality measure. On the other hand, this technique is binding on the issuer of the specific letter because he must know all the unique shipping identification codes used by the Postal Service that will send this specific letter and print these codes on this letter.The Commission has already taken a number of steps to ensure that the information provided by the Member States is accurate and that the information provided by the Member States is not misleading.

Explanation of the invention

The purpose of the invention is to provide a method of tracking mail which does not present all these drawbacks.

The idea behind the invention is to use real mail to trace the history of mail through a network of sorting machines. Then, if a real shipment is moving through two networks of sorting machines, the idea is to use the image of that real shipment to link a sender ID generated for that shipment by one network to another sender ID generated for the same shipment but by the other network. More specifically, this idea is to link an image of the shipment associated with the first ID when the shipment is in the network and another image of the shipment associated with the second sender when the shipment is in the second network and to link the two corresponding IDs by detecting a link between the two shipments of the images.

In particular, the invention concerns a process for tracking mail in a postal sorting system comprising a first network of sorting machines with a first machine unique consignment identification protocol and a second network of sorting machines with a second machine unique consignment identification protocol, a process in which the first network produces the first dated tracking data as a certain consignment is routed through the sorting machines of the first network, the first dated data being associated with a first unique consignment identifier generated according to the first protocol,the second network shall produce second dated tracking data as that particular shipment is routed through the sorting machines of the second network, the second dated data being associated with a second unique shipment identifier generated under the second protocol, characterised by the retrieval in a data processing unit of the said dated data associated with those first and second unique shipment identifiers for the purpose of measuring a temporal characteristic of the path of that particular shipment through the first and second systems of the system, and by the matching in the data processing unit of the said and second unique shipment identifiers by means of digital images of that particular shipment.

The data processing unit may be a data and image server of the service provider which is connected via a communication network to the mail sorting machine networks. The communication network may be an Internet or analogue network.

With the invention process, each Post Office can have its own data server to store shipment tracking data and in this case the data and image server of the service provider is connected to the Post Office's tracking data servers to retrieve the tracking data. With the invention process, the service provider can also be a Post Office. It can also be used as a unique sender identifier in one of the networks where a tracking first enters, an identifier of type followed by a letter and/or of type ID-tag . The invention process is also compatible with a unique sender identification protocol without printing the address identification code on the shipments, by a unique sender identification by composite signature.

According to a feature of the process of the invention, in the data processing unit, a first image of the sending associated with the first unique identifier of sending is retrieved from the first network, a second image of the sending associated with the second unique identifier of sending is retrieved from the second network, the first image is detected to be graphically consistent with the second image in order to establish the said correspondence between the first and second unique identifiers of sending and from this matching the said first dated tracking data produced by the first network is consolidated in memory with the second dated tracking data produced by the second network.

According to another feature of the process according to the invention, the first image associated with that particular consignment is retrieved during the last sorting pass of that particular consignment in the first network and the second image associated with that particular consignment is retrieved during the first sorting pass of that particular consignment in the second network.

The following are further particularities of the process according to the invention: a first and a second image signature are derived from the two images of the sending, respectively, each image signature comprising a component representing physical characteristics of the image and a second component which is a textual description of the recipient's address block, and the components of the first image signature are compared with the components of the second image signature to detect a graphical match between the two images of the sending; the first image and the second image are retrieved each with a network identifier from the receiver; the receiver's network identifier is associated in a trivia map with an output from a trivia machine from the first network.

Summary of the drawings

The process according to the invention will be even better understood by reading a detailed example of implementation below, illustrated by the following figures: Figure 1 shows very schematically the process of the invention in a postal sorting system with two networks of postal sorting machines; Figure 2 shows in particular the matching of two images of a consignment to consolidate tracking data associated with that consignment; Figure 3 shows the process of tracking a consignment in the first network of sorting machines; Figure 4 shows the process of tracking a consignment in the second network of sorting machines.

Description of a method of implementation

In Figure 1 a postal sorting system is shown which here comprises two networks of postal sorting machines belonging to two Postal Units, e.g. two National Postal Units 1 and 2, each having its own sorting centres 10 and 20 respectively with postal sorting machines 11 and 21 respectively and its own unique consignment identification protocol in the sorting machines 11, 21, e.g. in the form of a barcode affixed to the consignments.

In the example, items 3 sent by one sender (or several senders) to one (or more) Post Office 1 and then transferred from one Post Office to another and thus from an exchange office at exit 12 of Post Office 1 to an exchange office at entry 22 of Post Office 2 are considered to be distributed to one (or more) recipient 5.

The method of tracking mail according to the invention exploits real consignments 3 These real consignments 3 are tracked throughout their journey in the sorting machines 11, 21 of the two lines 1, 2 using the unique consignment identification protocols implemented in lines 1 and 2 respectively.

The implementation of the process according to the invention will be described below with a single actual 3 send. An actual 3 send is then mailed to a mailbox of Post 1 and is sorted in Post 11 sorting machines 1. At the first pass of the 3 send in a first 11 sorting machine, a unique Ship ID is generated in a machine according to Post 1 identification protocol and is for example affixed to one side of the shipment in the form of a first barcode IdTag Post Out readable by the 11 sorting machines as is well known. The delivery address of the 3 send is recognized by OCR from the image of the 3 send as is known. In the same network of 11 1 the 3 send may undergo several sort passes in a single or several 11 sorting machines.

Sorting machines 11 are configured to track the shipment 3, i.e. to trace back tracking data dated DS (of the type of machine location data and date-time data) to a shipment tracking system represented by the tracking data server 13 here at the Post Office 1. It is therefore considered that each time the shipment 3 with its unique shipping ID Id-tag Post Out is detected in the input of a sorting machine such as 11, (e.g. by a barcode reader) a tracking data dated DS for this shipment 3 is sent by the 11 sorting machine to the tracking data server 13 and as the shipment 3 is sorted into the different machines 11, a sequence of such tracking data is produced and thus data transmitted to the DS 13.

The successive transmissions of these DS dated tracking data in the Post Office 1 postal sorting machine network 11 are represented by the 14 arrows in Figure 1.

The DS dated tracking data received by the tracking system 13 is archived as a history, each DS dated tracking data transmitted by a sorting machine such as 11 being typically made up of, for example, a triplet (Id-Tag Post Out - Sorting Machine 11 identifier - Date and time of passage in the Sorting Machine 11).

When consignment 3 arrives at the end of the sorting cycle in the first network 1 of postal sorting machines 11, it is detected in a last sorting machine 11 of the sorting cycle installed in the exchange office 12 and this sorting machine 11 transmits to the tracking data server 13 a last tracking data dated DS as indicated above.

According to the invention, a digital IM1 image of this shipment 3 containing the recipient address block is also transmitted in combination with the unique Id-tag Post Out Shipment ID of shipment 3 from the exchange office 12 (the last sorting machine 11 at the end of the sorting cycle in network 1) to a data and image server 30 which acts as a data processing unit and temporarily stores this information in memory.

The transmission of the IM1 image from the 3 shipment to the data and image server 30 is symbolized by the arrow 31. The data and image server 30 can be considered as an external mail tracking integrator to the 1 and 2 postal networks.

These consignment tracking operations can be generalized to a whole set of actual consignments 3 passing through (as illustrated by arrow 32) between postal network 1 and postal network 2, in particular as part of a measurement campaign.

Shipment 3 is now in a sorting machine 21 at Exchange 22 of Post 2. In this sorting machine 21, a digital image of Shipment 3 is formed again, this image containing the delivery address block of the shipment, and a second unique Shipment ID for this Shipment 3 is generated by machine according to the unique Shipment 3 identification protocol specific to the Network 2, and is for example affixed to one side of Shipment 3 in the form of a second barcode IdTagPost In readable by the 21 sorting machines as is well known.

According to the invention, the sorting machine 21 transmits this digital IM2 image of the 3rd submission with the second unique submission ID IdTagPost In to the data and image server 30, which temporarily stores this information in memory.

In parallel with this transmission of images 33, the sorting machine 21 in the exchange office 22 also transmits DS dated tracking data to, for example, a DS dated data server 23 owned by the postal network 2 as illustrated in arrow 24.

Shipment 3 then continues its journey through the 21 sorting machines of the postal network 2 to a final stage of sorting for distribution by the postman and it is understood that DS dated tracking data produced successively for this shipment 3 is transmitted successively to the tracking data server 23 as this shipment 3 passes through the various 21 sorting machines as illustrated by arrows 24.

According to the invention, in the data and image server 30, at a given time, for example when the IM2 sending image from an exchange centre 22 corresponding to a consignment 3 entering that exchange centre 22 and from another exchange centre 12 is received by the data and image server 30, the IM2 sending image from the exchange centre 22 is compared with the IM1 sending images received from the exchange centre 12 for different consignments in order to detect a graphical match between the IM1 image of the first consignment 3 taken in the network 1 and the IM2 postal image of the third consignment in the second network 2 in the same way to associate the idag-T Postal code with the Postal identification code T Postal identification Postal identification Postal identification Postal identification Postal identification Postal identification Postal identification Postal identification Postal identification Postal identification Postal identification Postal identification Postal identification Postal identification Postal identification Postal identification Postal identification Postal identification Postal identification Postal identification Postal identification Postal identification Postal identification Postal identification Postal identification Postal identification Postal identification Postal identification Postal identification Postal identification Postal identification Postal identification Postal identification Postal identification Postal identification Postal identification Postal identification Postal identification Postal identification Postal identification Postal identification Postal identification Postal identification Postal identification Postal identification Postal identification Postal identification Postal identification Postal identification Postal identification Postal identification Postal identification Postal identification Postal identification Postal identification Postal identification Postal identification Postal identification Postal identi

In response to this match detection, the data and image server 30 is able to retrieve (arrows 34) from the tracking data server 13 of the postal network 1 the first DS dated tracking data files associated with the sending ID Id-tag Post Out and also from the tracking data server 23 of the postal network 2 (arrows 35) the second DS dated tracking data files associated with the sending ID Id-tag Post In and relating to the same shipment.

Thus, in the data and image server 30, a complete history can be established of the DS-dated tracking data for consignment 3 over its entire journey in postal networks 1 and 2 and the travel time of this consignment 3 in sorting machines 11 and 21 can therefore be determined precisely.

It should be noted that this monitoring procedure can be extended to a set of consignments 3 either over a given period corresponding to a measurement campaign or more systematically to all mail in transit from one postal network 1 to another postal network 2.

It is understood that the process of the invention avoids the use of specific test letters which do not allow precise measurements to be made and can be implemented rapidly on existing postal networks without modifying the consignment identification systems in sorting plants.

The reconciliation of IM1, IM2 images of a consignment 3 to consolidate DS dated monitoring data associated with that consignment 3 is shown in Figure 2.

In 100, the Tracking Data Server 13 receives a succession of DS dated tracking data which each contains a first unique id-Tag1 sender ID. The Tracking Data Server 13 can receive and store DS dated tracking data for a large number of 3 sends that enter the network 1.

In 110, the data and image server 30 receives and stores a sequence of IM1 digital images, each associated with an Id-Tag1 Shipment ID, which correspond to as many different Shipments 3 as arrive at the Exchange Centre 12.

In 120, the data and image server 30 receives and stores a succession of IM2 digital images each associated with a unique Id-Tag2 sender ID and corresponding to as many as 3 different sends arriving at the exchange center 22.

In 130, the Tracking Data Server 23 receives a succession of DS dated tracking data, each containing a second unique id-Tag2 sender ID. The Tracking Data Server 23 can also receive and store DS dated tracking data for a large number of 3 sends entering the network 2.

In 140, the data and image server 30 when detecting an IM2 image from the tracking data server 23 scans the memory-saved IM1 images for a graphical match between two IM1 images, IM2 images, in order to establish a match between the ID-Tag1 associated with the IM1 image and the ID-Tag2 associated with the IM2 image. This scan of the IM1 images may be done with each detection of a new IM2 image or cyclically or on demand as appropriate without leaving the invention.

to detect a graphic match between an IM1 image and an IM2 image of the same shipment 3, one can exploit image signatures, i.e. one derives from the two IM1, IM2 images of the same shipment 3 respectively a first and second V-Id1, V-Id2 image signature, each V-Id1, V-Id2 image signature, including a component representing physical characteristics of the IM1, IM2 image and a second component that is a textual description of the recipient address block, and one compares the components of the first V-Id1 image signature with the components of the second V-Id2 image signature, to detect a graphic match between the two IM1, IM2 images of the shipment 3.

Such V-Id1, V-Id2 image signatures may also be produced by the tracking data servers 13 and 23 or the sorting machines 11, 21 and transmitted to the data and image server 30 as shown in Figure 2 instead of the IM1, IM2 images of the 3 shipments without leaving the scope of the invention.

From the matching of the Id-Tag1 and Id-Tag2 Shipment IDs, the data and image server 30 can consolidate the DS dated tracking data associated with the Id-Tag1 Shipment ID with the DS dated tracking data associated with the Id-Tag2 Shipment ID to build a complete history of the path of a shipment 3 in both postal networks 1 and 2 in Figure 2.

It is understood that the tracking of actual mail according to the method of the invention involves a large amount of IM1 images, IM2 to be stored and scanned in the data and image server 30. To speed up the matching of IM1 images, IM2 produced by the postal network 1 and those produced by the postal network 2, it can be provided in the data and image server 30 a partitioning of the IM1 images according to a geographical criterion of delivery of the consignments 3, for example by the country of delivery of each consignment address 3 which means that the data and image server 30, upon receipt of an IM2 image produced by a national Post, can limit its scan of IM1 images, IM2 for the determination of a match to the IM1 images associated with that national Post IM2 corresponding to that country.

Figure 3 shows a schematic illustration of the process of sorting 3 items with IM1 image transmission triggered. In particular, a 3 item is sorted in 200 in the last sorting machine 11. This 3 item already has a unique ID ID ID generated by the Post Office 1 network protocol, which ID ID ID ID ID is stored in a database corresponding to the sorting data of the 3 item. In the 11 sorting machine, the unique ID ID ID ID ID of this 3 item is therefore automatically recognized in 210, IdFor example, a barcode reader, and the sort data from this shipment 3 is automatically retrieved in the database by the 11 shipment. At this stage of the shipment process, a DS dated tracking data is sent to the 23 shipment data server in step 220. The sort data is cross-referenced with the sort plan in the 11 shipment to determine in 230 the S-OUT sort output of the 11 shipment to which shipment 3 is to be routed.i.e. mail in the last sorting step intended to be passed through an output exchange office such as 12, an S-EXPORT data indicating that this sorting output is an output for of the export mail in the last sorting step. Following step 230, in the sorting process it is detected in 240 if the sorting output determined in 210 for a current 3 shipment is a sorting output for of the export mail in the last sorting step and in this case the IM1 image of the current 3 shipment is transmitted in 250 to the data and image server 30 in combination with the unique ID code of the current Id-TagPostOut associated with the current 3 shipment and also geographic partition information,For example FR as shown in Figure 3. Then the process continues by sorting in 260 of the current 3 output in the S-OUT sort output. In the negative at step 240, no IM1 image is sent to the data server and images 30 and therefore the process continues at step 260.

In Figure 4, the process of sorting 3 shipments with IM2 image transmission triggered is now schematically illustrated. Shipment 3 is stripped in Sorting 21 and at step 300. The unique ID-TagPostOut Shipment ID code of shipment 3 is not normally recognizable by the Sorting 21 machine. Subsequently, in 310 a digital IM2 image of shipment 3 is formed in the Sorting 21 machine by a camera, a unique Id-TagPostIn Shipment ID is generated and an OCR mail address recognition process is applied to the IM2 image to recognize the delivery address on shipment 3 and produce sort data that is associated in a database of Id-Tln Post ID.The sort data is cross-referenced with the sort plan in the sorting machine 21 to determine a corresponding sort output where the current 3 shipment is to be sorted. In 320, tracking data dated DS is transmitted to the tracking data server 23 as shown above. According to the invention, in the sorting machine 21 it is determined in 330 whether this current 3 shipment is a import first-pass shipment of sort i.e. a 3 shipment from an inbound exchange office such as 22. According to the invention, the 3 shipments from the exchange office 22 are identified upstream of the sorting in 300 as import first-pass shipments by an input of a machine command parameter,In particular, shipments3 from the exchange office 22 are stacked and loaded into the warehouse of the sorting machine 21. This stack of shipments3 is preceded by an unzipped stack to signal a stack of import shipments in the first sorting pass . The signal can be made by an I-IN barcode affixed to the stack which is read at step 300.

Now in 330 when passing a current 3 send, if the I-IN barcode has already been detected upstream by the sorting machine 21, the IM2 image of the current 3 send is transmitted in 340 with the unique ID of the sender Id-TagPostln associated with the current 3 send and also associated with a receiving network identifier, here Post 2, for example FR . This identifier is assumed to be known in the sorting machine 21, for example in its configuration settings.

The process then continues at step 350 of sorting the current shipment 3 into the sort output corresponding to the delivery address.

The 300 signal can also be generated by the operator of the sorting machine 21 entering a specific machine parameter as is known.

Claims (6)

1. A method of tracking mail in a postal sorting system comprising a first network (1) of sorting machines (11) with a first unique identification protocol for uniquely identifying the mailpieces (3) in the machines, and a second network (2) of sorting machines (21) with a second unique identification protocol for uniquely identifying the mailpieces (3) in the machines, in which method the first network (1) produces first dated tracking data (DS) as a certain mailpiece (3) is passing through the sorting machines (11) of the first network (1), this first dated data being associated with a first unique mailpiece identifier (Id_Tag Post OUT) generated using the first protocol, and the second network (2) produces second dated tracking data (DS) as said certain mailpiece (3) is passing through the sorting machines (21) of the second network (2), this second dated data (DS) being associated with a second unique mailpiece identifier (Id_Tag Post IN) generated using the second protocol, said method being characterized in that, in a data-processing unit (30), said dated data (DS) associated with said first and second unique mailpiece identifiers (Id_Tag Post OUT, Id_Tag Post IN) is retrieved for the purposes of measuring a time characteristic of the journey of said certain mailpiece (3) through the first and second networks (1, 2) of the postal sorting system, and in that, in the data-processing unit (30), a match is established between said first and second unique mailpiece identifiers (Id_Tag Post OUT, Id_Tag Post IN)via digital images of said certain mailpiece (3).
2. A method according to claim 1, wherein, in the data processing unit (30), a first image (IM1) of the mailpiece (3), which image is associated with the first unique mailpiece identifier (Id_Tag Post OUT), is retrieved from the first network (1), a second image (IM2) of said mailpiece (3), which image is associated with the second unique mailpiece identifier (Id_Tag Post IN), is retrieved from the second network (2), it is detected (140) whether the first image (IM1) graphically matches the second image (IM2) so as to establish said match between said first and second unique mailpiece identifiers (Id_Tag Post OUT, Id_Tag Post IN), and, on the basis of this matching, said first dated tracking data (DS) produced by the first network (1) is consolidated (150) in a memory with the second dated tracking data (DS) produced by the second network (2).
3. A method according to claim 2, wherein said first image (IM1) associated with said certain mailpiece (3) is retrieved during the last sorting pass of said mailpiece (3) through the first network (1), and said second image (IM2) associated with said certain mailpiece (3) is retrieved during the first sorting pass of said certain mailpiece (3) through the second network (2).
4. A method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein a first image signature (V-Id1) and a second image signature (V-Id2) are derived respectively from the two images (IM1, IM2) of the mailpiece (3), each image signature (V-Id1, V-Id2) comprising a component representative of physical characteristics of the image (IM1, IM2) and a second component that is a textual description of the recipient address block, and wherein the components of the first image signature (V-Id1) are compared with the components of the second image signature (V-Id2) in order to detect a graphical match between the two images (IM1, IM2) of the mailpiece (3).
5. A method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein each image (IM1, IM2) of said certain mailpiece (3) is retrieved associated with a receiver network identifier for identifying the network receiving the mailpiece (3).
6. A method according to claim 5, wherein the receiver network identifier is associated in a sorting plan with a sorting outlet of a sorting machine (11) of the first network (1).