On the back of its Parcel and Postal Technology International Awards win at Parcel & Post Expo 2021 (October 12-14) in Vienna, Austria, the digital postage stamp company Stamp Free is launching its Digitrack app. The Retail/Customer Service Innovation of the Year award was claimed by Stamp Free at Parcel & Post Expo 2021. The award recognises the dramatic change experienced by the retail sector in the postal industry.
The Digitrack app works with Stamp Free’s existing API that enables validation through a carrier’s automated sortation process. This app can be downloaded onto the employee’s smartphone and is designed to increase the speed, accuracy and handling of mail items that use the Stamp Free Digital Postage Solution. This is because the AI technology can recognise the handwriting on the mail item. To work the Digitrack app, the postal operative must first scan the package with their smartphone/device. Then, the AI technology validates the code on a letter or parcel to know it’s been paid and is correct. After this, the operative clicks ‘validate’ on-screen after scanning, which can be done in a few seconds throughout the delivery journey. When operatives photograph a mail item (such as to provide evidence of delivery), the AI engine automatically extracts the label information to update the carrier’s central system to provide their customers with tracking updates.
Hugh Craigie Halkett, managing director of Stamp Free, said, “Not only are we providing consumers and businesses with the ability to send parcels, letters and returns just by using their mobile phone, but we are now providing postal and carrier services with the equivalent benefit. Postal and carrier operatives will have the ability to scan and validate handwritten codes on mail items with the same speed and accuracy as they would conventional barcodes, which will increase the efficiency of the mail sort process. This is made possible by the use of artificial intelligence, which we believe will transform the postal and carrier industry by enabling a truly label-free and contact-free mail and returns journey.”
