PD CEN/TR 17386:2019

What is CEN/TR 17386 - Postal services about?  

PD CEN/TR 17386 is a feasibility study that was carried out to explore the use of real mail data in the measurement of the transit time of end-to-end services for single piece cross-border priority mail. In PD CEN/TR 17386 a description is given of the context, the way this study was carried out, the results of the study and the advice given to CEN/TC 331 Postal services and, finally, CEN and the European Commission. 

Who is PD CEN/TR 17386- Postal services for? 

PD CEN/TR 17386 on postal services and transit time measurement for cross border postal items using a real mail feasibility study is useful for: 

• Data management companies 
• Postal service providers 
• IT systems administrators 

Why should you use PD CEN/TR 17386- Postal services?  

To process the cross-border mail flows between EU countries, bilateral agreements between USP in each country are in place to perform the transport from sender to receiver. 

PD CEN/TR 17386 can capture images by sorting machines in sorting centres and offices of exchange per item throughout Europe (EC member states) be stored and used in a survey in such a way that: 

• Individual mail items can be identified 
• The date of posting (cancelling information with dates on stamps or the date in the franking image) and tracking data per item throughout a big part of Europe is registered 

PD CEN/TR 17386 also covers the purpose of a feasibility study as mentioned below: 

• To analyse the possibility of acquiring automatically images of letters processed in sorting machines installed in the Office of Exchange (or in a sorting centre close to the OE) in both countries (sender and receiver – from country A to country B as indicated in Figure 1). 
• To be able to recognize individual mail items from image identification. 
• To be able to track and trace individual items between oes and to measure the time spent during the international transport. 

Based on PD CEN/TR 17386 became clear that the time and resources needed to develop such a method are too extensive to justify it. Therefore, the members of CEN/TC 331 Postal services have decided that this method is not feasible and that the method will not be developed within the current Standardization Request M/548.