By ANDREW T. MOHLMAN
The United States Postal Service is testing software that allows a new form of postage to be printed from personal computers.
The digital stamp, being tested in Washington, D.C., is a combination of human readable information and a two-dimensional bar code. It contains delivery information and a digital signature that makes each individual mailpiece unique, said Jeff Green, co-founder of Stamps.com.
Stamps.com, a USPS authorized and regulated company, is one of four companies that have developed systems that allows home computer users to print legal USPS postage. Neo Post, E-stamp and Pitney Bowes are the other three competing companies.
The electronic postage is the first postage system to be approved in 78 years. The last to receive the stamp of approval was the postage meter in 1920.
To obtain digital stamps, customers must first download about three Mb of software from the Web site www.stamps.com. The next step is to register online with Stamps.com and apply for a USPS license. Then the user must purchase an electronic money transfer and purchase postage on a credit card or bank account, Green said.
“This is really going to change the way to do postage,” Green said. The electronic stamp was developed for small companies that cannot afford a postage meter.
“It’s geared towards companies that use $30 to $400 of postage a month,” he said.
The digital stamp is still being tested in Washington, D.C., and a few other cities.
“The word that rings back is that it’s very convenient,” Green said. The final USPS approval is still to come, probably by mid-year.
The USPS has made it a goal to make postage easily available to the customer, said Norm Scherstrom, spokesman for USPS.
“Our basic position is that we want postage to be available as easily as humanly possible to our customers,” Scherstrom said. “This is just a logical extension of our effort to make stamps easy to use.”
