Pitney bowes asking for ship label with barcode?

[kirikara]

Hi,
I was really unsure where to ask this question but I figure one of you might have had this issue or know how to deal with it.
I ship most of my orders to Europe. small packages.I am very small scale. I haved used mail forwarders in the past (in order not pay full price post office) but they only offered first class service and not trackingor insurance. Parcels got lost a lot, delays were longer and customers were unhappy.

Pitney bowes recently let me know that they now offer priority mail with tracking but they are asking for all these requirements:
They want me to have shipping label (very similar to the ups style) with all infos, custom info and a specifically created barcode (created by me) on the parcels.
And then I need to send them spms file for each parcel every night I send something.

I have the entire explaination of what they need if you need to see it.
My site was created on prestashop.
Anyone as any clue about how I can about this?
Usually i have some clue about going around things. in this one I have ABSOLUTELY no clue where to start.
Use endicia?
Is there any software?
help :)
thanks so much!

[dpd1]

I'm not that familiar with what Bowes is offering now. Looking at their site, it looks like a bunch of corporate double talk to me. I think whatever service you use, you're still going to be at the mercy of the actual mail system. They're the ones scanning the packages and everything. I just use the USPS site, and maybe 90% get scanned through the whole thing. You can fill out a separate doc in the beginning which helps a little. But it's still not perfect. I think any service you go through is going to be the same thing. So I would just try the USPS first. It's pretty simple... You just fill out the info and print out the labels. But yes, it's minimum priority. But you will get a lot less losses with that. I think the main advantage to something like Endicia, is that it won't have what you paid for the postage on the sticker. But the usps online does give about 8% discount I think.

[HRoth]

I don't see how Pitney Bowes can offer tracking on International Priority Mail when the post office doesn't. The most you can get is that the package is scanned in at the post office. How is it to be kept track of when hits another country's postal system? It sounds like a big PIA compared to just using either the USPS site or stamps.com, something like that.

[kirikara]

HI thank you guys. I actually already use the usps post office. It cost me an arm and a leg to ship with them (more than my actual product cost) Pitney bowes offer the same service I use (priority mail) which does track and insure the parcel. At least enough for what I need it for.
Tells me when it arrives in Paris, etc,, it is not 100% accurate but it reassures my customer.
The advantage of working with Pitney is that they get discounted usps rate. I would save A LOT over using usps online.
about a 40-50% discount on international rates.
For specific reasons i HAVE to use USPS>

So basically if I want to get my operationnal cost down I need to figure out how to get this label thing going.
It could save me major $ in the long run.
I willing to pay a coder or something. just not even sure what exactly I need :)

[dpd1]

Is this what you're talking about?

[ribbs.usps.gov...]

I don't know... I think something is being missed. If there was a way to 50% on priority, it seems like people would be screaming it from the rooftops.

[jecasc]

Creating a barcode is not very difficult. A barcode is nothing more than encoding letters or numbers into a set of black lines. There are dozens of freeware barcode creators out there. You type in the numbers, select the encoding type and then you have a barcode ready to print. All you need to know is what encoding they require.

There are also PHP barcode creators, some of them free and Open Source if you want to include them directly into your shopping software. Simply search for: PHP Barcode

If you have no clue where to start, get a programmer show him the specifics.

As for the file you have to submit: If you have the format specifics it should not be much of a problem to extract the values from the shopping cart database and save them to a file in the proper format.

[kirikara]

Thanks Jecasc, I think I might post something on coder.com or elsewhere and see what I get.

Dpd1, This is the service I am talking about
[usps.com...]
It is the only way to save money as a business on international shipping unless you become yourself a wholesaler which there is no way I could do.
You need to meet requirements per shipment or parcels(5lb), you send your parcel to the mail consolidator (mine would be pitney) and they charge you a agreed rate per pound.
Pitney offers that service for all international mail.
They had 1st class and expedited (cheaper than my negotiated rate with ups for me)
I don't believe it is something you use for domestic, but I am not sure and then again, domestically you don't spend $30 on a 2 pound parcel :) (which is what I pay with usps)

[HRoth]

$30.00 for a 2-pound parcel? The small priority flat rate box is less than $13.00 through the USPS and that can weigh up to four pounds. Is your stuff too big for that? I just started using the international priority flat rate again. I used to use it a lot when they had the little five-dollar flat rate envelopes. Those were great. I have noticed that the next larger size up from small priority flat rate now is a steep increase over $12.50.

[kirikara]

Yep, my stuff is too big for that :)
I sell plus size shoes ...they are big :)

[HRoth]

Oh yeah. I hear ya. And I can understand why you would want to cut the shipping costs, too. Good luck to you.