Certain organizations dispatch large amounts of mail on a periodic basis. Examples of such organizations are: banking institutions, utility companies, insurance companies, credit companies, and the like. With such large quantities, these mail senders normally pre-package and pre-sort their mail and are given a lower postage rate by the postal service because of the time saved by the postal service. There are generally two ways in which such mail senders apply postage to their mail. The most common way is by use of a postage meter which is leased by the mail sender from a postage meter manufacturer with which the amount of postage required is applied to each mail piece. Inserter systems have been developed whereby inserts may be place into an envelope, the envelope may be sealed, addressed and have a postage indicia applied thereto. The mail pieces may be weighed on the fly or individual weighing may not be required if all the mail pieces are of like kind, i.e., only a sample mail piece need be weighed. Additionally, the weight can be calculated based upon a knowledge of the inserts to be processed. These acts of processing mail may be performed at a relatively high rate of speed.
A second method of mailing large quantities of mail pieces is the permit mail system. In such a system, the mail sender places a permit number on the mail pieces and prepares a manifest listing that shows the type and number of mail pieces being mailed on each occasion and the postage required. All the mail pieces are generally of the same type and weight.
With both such systems, inspection at the site of the mail sender is required. In the case of the postage meter, the lessor of the postage meter, i.e., the postage meter manufacturer, is required by law to inspect the postage meter at least twice a year to ensure that there is no evidence of tampering with the postage meter that will indicate an attempt to obtain unauthorized postage. In the case of permit mail, large quantities of the same type of mail will be mailed at one time and the postal service will conduct an inspection to verify that the manifest listing accompanying the permit mail accurately accounts for the amount of postage due for the mail that has been processed by the postal service. This is accomplished through an inspection on the part of the postal service by examining the records of the mail sender on every occasion.
Obviously, each of these two systems has certain drawbacks. In the case of on-site inspection of postage meters, with the large number of postage meters in use by large mail senders it is an expensive matter for the inspection thereof. With regard to the permit mail system, the shortcoming lies in the need of the postal service to send a representative frequently to the various mail sender locations to assure that the mail sender is accurately accounting for the quantity of mail being sent. Such a scheme is not totally reliable as it relies upon on-site verification using the mail senders records which are not secure.
A system has been conceived whereby a mail sender will be able to send large quantities or batches of mail without the need of on-site inspections. This is accomplished by the mail sender having a secure accounting unit similar to a postage meter in which postage value is placed by a dispensing or central station. A statement accompanies each batch of mail which statement may include information relative to the mail and the amount of postage required to send the mail and the amount of postage value remaining with the mail sender. Communication between the central station and the mail sender allows postage value to be transferred to and from the mail sender by the central station and mailing and verification data to be sent to the central station from the mail sender. The mailing and verification data will be the same as that contained on the mailing statements that accompany the batches of mail. This system provides a central station for a large number of mail senders whereby the postal service is relieved of its obligation of having on-site inspections and the central station acts as a clearing house for the postal service through whom verification of postage can be conveniently and inexpensively achieved.
Human nature being what it is, there are those who attempt to tamper with postage meters or accounting units of the type described herein to obtain unauthorized postage. Such meters or units have access doors that allow servicing thereof. Wrongdoers, on occasion, will attempt to force open such access doors or gain access by other means to reset or bypass the accounting register contained therein. Schemes have been suggested in the past whereby a postage meter or other value printing device may be provided with interlocks to prevent a user from printing postage value upon tampering being detected. A review of such schemes is given in U.S. Pat. No. 4,506,344. Where one has variable printing capability, as is provided by the instant system, it is desirable that one be able to detect tampering without having to disable the device.