JP2002355613A - Delivery processing method and system - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [Problem] To enable the tracking of the location of a delivery target without placing extra effort on the sender when the delivery target whose location is unknown is generated. SOLUTION: A mail M sent by a specific sender is printed with barcode data including an ID code and a tracking flag when the mail is sent to a sorting machine 1A. The barcode data and the image data of the mail M are stored in the storage unit 3A. Stations B and C sorters 1B, 1
When C processes the postal matter M, the reception completion information is transmitted to the A station side. Then, when there is an inquiry from the sender about the location of the postal matter M at the station A, the data is retrieved from the storage means 3A by the retrieval means 4A, and the whereabouts of the postal matter M is investigated.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a delivery processing method and system for delivering a delivery object such as a mail.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art At present, the postal system is an advanced system which has been promoted by mechanization and rationalization, and many mails are accurately and promptly delivered to recipients. However, the number of mails processed was extremely large, and due to various circumstances such as incorrect addresses on the mails and missing recipients, In the process of delivery processing, some mail items whose location is unknown during the delivery process are generated.

[0003] When such a postal matter whose location is unknown occurs, it is possible for the post office to trace the destination of the postal matter to some extent depending on the type of the postal matter. Typical trackable mail items are registered mail and parcel mail. That is, when the sender submits a registered mail or parcel post to the post office, write the sender's address and the recipient's address on a sheet of a predetermined format, and send this form together with the mail to the post office window. It is supposed to be. When the post office receives the form with the mail, the post office attaches the ID code unique to the mail to the mail as barcode data, and gives the sender a receipt on which the barcode data is printed. .

[0004] Therefore, if the sender notices that his mail has not been delivered to the recipient, he or she can bring this receipt and contact the post office. At the post office, based on the ID code in the bar code data printed on the receipt, it is possible to investigate what process has been performed to deliver the mail.

[0005]

By the way, at present, only a part of mail such as registered mail and parcel mail can be traced when the location is unknown as described above. There is no traceable system for small regular mail. this is,
Registered mail and parcel mail are often more important to both the sender and recipient than small regular mail, whereas small regular mail is not necessarily important to both. This is because there are many things that cannot be said. Also, registered mail and parcel post have high fees and the number of transactions is not as large as that of small regular mail, whereas small regular mail has the lowest postage and the largest number of transactions. The reason is that if traceable small regular mail as well as registered mail and parcel mail can be traced, it will not be possible to pay in terms of cost.

[0006] However, even small ordinary mail items are of considerable importance. For example, an invoice is sent from a telephone company or an electric power company to ordinary households as small ordinary mail, but if such an invoice is missing and a predetermined period has passed, both There is a possibility that this may cause trouble. Therefore, it is desirable to adopt a somewhat flexible processing method for small regular ordinary mail, instead of eliminating the need for tracking uniformly, but the same processing as registered mail and parcel mail is performed as described above. It is difficult to do so in terms of cost.

[0007] Further, the current processing method adopted for registered mail and parcel mail requires that the sender's address and the recipient's address be described in the receipt received by the sender himself. This results in extra effort.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and a delivery processing method and a delivery processing system capable of expanding the types of traceable delivery targets as required without imposing extra labor on the sender. It is intended to provide.

[0009]

Means for Solving the Problems As means for solving the above-mentioned problems, the invention according to claim 1 is characterized in that a delivery object received by a sender is received by a dispatch station, and the delivery object received by the dispatch station is received by the dispatch station. In a delivery processing method in which a delivery station delivers an article to a recipient and an arrival station relays between the dispatch station and the delivery station, the dispatch station receives a delivery object of a specific sender. An ID code including a tracking flag is printed on the delivery target, the code data and the image data of the delivery target are stored in a storage device, and then the delivery target is delivered to an arrival station or a delivery office. Receiving the delivery object delivered from the dispatch station, the arrival station or the delivery station transmits reception completion information indicating reception of the delivery object to the dispatch station, The dispatch station arrives at the said Alternatively, the reception completion information transmitted from the delivery station is stored in the storage device in association with the code data and the image data, and when a delivery target whose location is unknown occurs, the code data or the image data is stored. , The storage device is searched for, and the whereabouts of the delivery object whose location has become unknown can be investigated.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a dispatch station for receiving a delivery object sent by a sender, a delivery station for delivering the delivery object received by the dispatch station to a recipient, In a delivery processing system having an arrival station relaying between the delivery station and the delivery station, an ID provided at the dispatch station and including a tracking flag in the delivery object when a delivery object of a specific sender is received. When the code is printed, a storage means for storing the code data and the image data of the delivery target, and provided at the arrival station or the delivery station, wherein the arrival station or the delivery station is delivered from the dispatch station. Transmission means for transmitting reception completion information indicating reception of the delivery object to the dispatch station when the delivery object is received, provided at the dispatch station, from the arrival station or the delivery station. Transmit to dispatch station The received reception completion information is stored in the storage unit in association with the code data and the image data, and when an undelivered delivery object occurs, the storage is performed based on the code data or the image data. And a search means for searching for a device, and enabling an investigation of the delivery target whose location is unknown.

[0011]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS First, an outline of the present invention will be described. The present invention makes it possible to track small ordinary mail. 2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in each post office, a processing method when mail is applied to a sorting machine is as follows. That is, the postal code written on the postal matter is read by the OCR (optical character reader) of the sorting machine,
If the address of the recipient is within the jurisdiction of the own station, an intra-office barcode (which is an invisible barcode) is attached, and the directions are assembled. However, if the OCR was unable to read the postal code, the attendant entered the postal code and address using a VCD (video coding desk) while viewing the image of the postal matter, and further entered the postal code and address. An ID code (also an invisible bar code) is attached to the mail so that the mail matches the image data of the mail (which is stored for a certain period of time). Has become.

On the other hand, in the present invention, regardless of whether or not reading by the OCR is possible, all mails from a specific sender registered in advance as a specific sender are provided with an ID code including a tracking flag. The reception completion information is fed back to the dispatch station. Therefore, when a mail whose location is unknown is generated, it is possible to know at least to which post office the mail has reached by referring to the reception completion information. As the specific sender, a telephone company or a power company that issues a large amount of bills to ordinary households as described in the related art can be considered, but there is no particular limitation. By applying the above criteria, it can be determined whether or not to register as a specific sender.

[0013] The reason why the tracking flag is added is to enable identification of a mail from a specific sender that needs to be tracked. That is, an ID code is attached only to mail from a specific sender, and an ID code is not attached to mail from an ordinary sender other than the specific sender, so that all mail with an ID code is tracked. May be treated as necessary, and it seems that the tracking flag is unnecessary. However, as described above, the ID code is also attached to mails from ordinary senders processed by the VCD. Therefore, the result I processed by the VCD
A tracking flag is added to distinguish the mail from the D-code.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a delivery processing system according to an embodiment of the present invention. In this figure, station A includes a sorter 1A, a transmission unit 2A, a storage unit 3
A, the search means 4A is provided, and the station B is provided with the transmission means 2B.
The sorting machine 1B, the transmission means 2B, and the station C have the sorting machine 1C and the transmission means 2C. The stations A, B, and C have the same configuration as each other.
In the stations and the stations C, illustration of the storage means and the search means is omitted.

In this embodiment, a case will be described in which a station A is a dispatch station, a station B is an arrival station, and a station C is a delivery station for a certain postal matter M. Here, the dispatch station refers to the station that initially accepted the mail from the sender, the delivery station refers to the station that delivers the mail to the recipient, and the arrival station refers to:
A station that relays mail between the dispatch station and the delivery office.

The sorting machine 1A reads a postal code of a postal matter, and prints a barcode on the postal matter when the postal matter is sent to a sorting box for the own station or another station. This barcode data has an ID including a tracking flag.
The mail has a code (only the mail from the specific sender includes the ID code, and also includes the address data if the mail is directed to the own station). In this case, the tracking flag is “1”, and when a person other than the specific sender is present, the tracking flag is “0”. The sorting machine 1A also acquires image data of a small ordinary mail sent from a specific sender by a video camera or the like, and stores the image data and the barcode data in the storage unit 3A. It has become.

The transmission means 2A is for transmitting and receiving data to and from another station. The transmission means 2A receives the reception completion information sent from the other station and stores it in the storage means 3A. Has become. That is, the stations B and C read the tracking flag in the barcode data printed on the postal matter when the postal matter is sent to its own sorting machine 1B, 1C, and the tracking flag is "1". Then, the receiving completion information such as the code number and date and time of the sorting machine of the own station is transmitted to the dispatching station A. The reception completion information includes the ID code of the postal matter, and the transmission means 2A of the A station associates the image data and the bar code data stored before based on the ID code, The reception completion information is stored in the storage unit 3A.

The storage means 3A is an external storage device having a sufficient storage capacity for storing image data, bar code data, and reception completion information of all mail processed by the station A. It is.

The search means 4A is constituted by a PC (personal computer). When there is an inquiry about a mail whose location is unknown, the various data stored in the storage means 3A can be used by the staff of the A station. It is for searching based on the location of the mail.

Next, a delivery processing method according to an embodiment of the present invention performed by using the above-described delivery processing system will be described with reference to FIG.
This will be described with reference to the flowcharts of FIGS. Here, a certain postal matter M is sent to station A by a specific sender (company), relayed by station B, sent to station C, and delivered from station C to a recipient (general household). It is assumed that

FIG. 2 is a flowchart of the processing performed by the station A. At the station A that has received the mail from the sender, the OCR of the sorting machine 1A reads the postal code of the mail and distributes the mail to a sorting box for the own station or another station (step 21). At that time, the sorting machine 1A determines whether or not the mail has been sent from a specific sender (step 22), and if the mail is a specific sender, prints a barcode with a tracking flag of "1". (Step 23), and further stores the image data of the mail in the storage means 3A (Step 25). On the other hand, if the mail is sent from a person other than the specific sender, the sorting machine 1A only prints the barcode of the tracking flag "0" (step 24).

The sorter 1A determines whether or not the processing of all mails has been completed each time such processing is performed on each mail (step 26). And the same processing is repeated. If the processing is completed, the delivery processing to the own station or another station is performed (step 2).
7).

Therefore, the mail M is sorted in step 21 to a sorting box for station B, and
After the barcode data and the image data are stored in 3 and 25, they are sent out to station B in step 27.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the processing performed by the stations B and C. At stations B and C, as in station A, the OCR of each sorting machine reads the postal code of the mail and sorts the mail to a sorting box for the own station or another station (step 31). In this case, since the barcode has already been printed on the mail transferred from the other station in step 23 or 24, the sorting machine of the station B or C reads out the barcode data (step 23). 32). Then, it is determined whether the tracking flag included in the bar code data is “1” or “0” (step 33). If the tracking flag is “1”, each of the transmission means 2B and 2C Data such as the processing date and time of the sorting machines 1B and 1C is transmitted to the transmission means 2A of the A station as reception completion information (step 34). On the A station side, the transmission means 2A
Stores the received completion information in the storage unit 3A.

The sorters 1B and 1C determine whether or not the processing of all mails has been completed each time such processing is performed on each mail (step 35). Returning to step 31, the same processing is repeated,
If it has been completed, delivery processing to the own station or another station is performed (step 27).

Therefore, at the station B, the postal matter M is sorted to the sorting box for the station C at step 31 and the processing date at the station B is notified to the station A at step 34. In step 36, a delivery process to the station C is performed. At the station C, the postal matter M is sorted to the sorting box for the own station (station C) at step 31, and after the processing date at the station C is notified to the station A at step 34. In step 36, delivery processing to the own station (station C) is performed.

FIG. 4 is a flow chart of the processing of the station A in the case where there is an inquiry about a postal matter whose location is unknown. If there is an inquiry to station A,
The staff of the bureau operates the search means 4A to search the image data stored in the storage means 3A, and obtains the corresponding ID code for the mail whose location is unknown (steps 41 and 4).
2). At this point, neither the inquirer (usually the sender) nor the A station can know the ID code, and the user identifies the unknown mail while looking at the image data. Because there is no other way but to ask for. Therefore, the staff of the station A asks the person who made the inquiry about the address of the recipient, and seeks out the image data including the address. In this case, finding one image data from the image data of many mails seems to be a difficult task at first glance.
For postal mail whose location is unknown, feedback of the completion information of the mail is often not provided. Therefore, the number of image data to be searched can be narrowed down by picking up only the postal matter for which the reception completion information has not been fed back to the station A at all, so that the operation is not so difficult. If the ID code can be obtained, various information can be obtained based on the ID code. Therefore, the staff of the station A investigates the location of the unknown mail based on the ID code (step 43).

For example, since the recipient has not received the postal matter M even after a certain period, the recipient makes an inquiry to the sender, and in response to this, the sender informs the A office about the location of the postal matter M. Is performed. At the station A, an ID code is obtained from the image data of the postal matter M, and based on the ID code, the whereabouts of the postal matter that has become unknown can be checked. For example,
The mail M is actually delivered from the station C to the recipient,
If the transmission means 2B and 2C happen to be out of order for a certain period of time, so that the reception completion information is not transmitted to the station A, the staff searches the processing history of the sorting machines 1B and 1C to obtain the mail M. Is actually processed at stations B and C. Therefore, staff
It can be inferred that the postal matter M is missing after leaving the station C.

In the above-described delivery processing method and delivery processing system, it is possible to easily perform a certain degree of tracking on the mail sent by the specific sender without imposing any special procedure on the specific sender. Has become. Therefore, it is possible to improve the service for the user, and it is possible to obtain a merit that the time spent for troubleshooting can be reduced for the post office.

In the above embodiment, the delivery processing method and the system according to the present invention have been described by taking a postal system as an example. However, the technology of the present invention can also be applied to a home delivery system of a shipping company. It is.

[0031]

As described above, according to the present invention, when a delivery object whose location is unknown occurs, the destination of the delivery object can be tracked without imposing extra labor on the sender. Will be possible.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a delivery processing system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart of a process performed by a station A in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating processing performed by stations B and C in FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of a process performed by a station A when an inquiry about a mail whose location is unknown is made;

[Explanation of symbols]

 1A, 1B, 1C Sorting machine 2A, 2B, 2C Transmission means 3A Storage means 4A Search means M Mail

Claims (2)

[Claims] A delivery station accepts a delivery object sent by a sender, and a delivery station delivers the delivery object accepted by the delivery station to a recipient. In the delivery processing method in which the arrival station relays, when the dispatching station accepts a delivery object of a specific sender, an ID code including a tracking flag is printed on the delivery object, and the code data and The image data of the delivery target is stored in a storage device, and then the delivery target is delivered to an arrival station or a delivery station. The arrival station or delivery station receives the delivery target delivered from the dispatch station. When receiving, the receiving station transmits reception completion information indicating reception of the delivery object to the dispatching station, and the dispatching station stores the reception completion information transmitted from the arrival station or the delivery station. The code data is stored in the device. In the case where a delivery object whose location is unknown occurs, the storage device is searched based on the code data or the image data, and the delivery object whose location is unknown is stored. A delivery processing method characterized by being able to investigate whereabouts. 2. A dispatch station for receiving a delivery object sent by a sender, a delivery station for delivering the delivery object received by the dispatch station to a recipient, and a delivery station between the dispatch station and the delivery station. A delivery processing system provided with an arrival station that relays the ID of a delivery object provided at the sending station and receiving a delivery object of a specific sender and including a tracking flag in the delivery object.
Storage means for storing the code data and the image data of the delivery target when the code is printed; and provided at the arrival station or the delivery station, wherein the arrival station or the delivery station is delivered from the dispatch station. Transmission means for transmitting, to the dispatch station, reception completion information indicating reception of the delivery object when the delivery object is received, provided at the dispatch station, from the arrival station or the delivery station. The reception completion information transmitted to the dispatch station is stored in the storage means in association with the code data and the image data, and when a delivery target whose location is unknown occurs, the code data or the image data is stored. And a search means for performing a search of the storage device based on the search condition, and enabling a search for a delivery target whose location has become unknown.