Breakthrough Business Method Patent Awarded for Cost Effective Return Mail (UAA Pieces) Solution

BIRMINGHAM, AL ? Return Mail, Inc. (RMI), inventors of an innovative and cost effective solution that eliminates the handling of Undeliverable As Addressed (UAA) mail, today announced that a business method patent has been awarded by the United States Patent Office for their automated return mail system and that international patents are pending. Issued November 30, 2004, RMI?s patent (6,826,548) covers the method, system and program product for processing returned mail, including encoding outgoing subscriber mail with identification information for the intended recipients, scanning and decoding the identification information on the undeliverable mail, and electronically transferring to the subscriber updated identification information for the intended recipients.

Every year, it is estimated that between 4 and 6 billion pieces of mail are returned by the United States Post Office as undeliverable, at a USPS cost of nearly $2 Billion annually. RMI?s patented solution can totally eliminate undeliverable mail piece handling, and greatly reduce the associated costs as well as increase A/R collections, improve cash flow, control fraud and improve customer service.

?This patent is a validation of our hard work and commitment to solving the costly problem of undeliverable mail,? said Mitch Hungerpiller, president and CEO of Return Mail, Inc. ?There is no other solution better suited to meeting the UAA challenge, which is huge and growing. RMI?s automated systems, now patent protected, are uniquely positioned to be the solution-of-choice for financial institutions, collection agencies, medical companies, retail companies, insurance companies, associations and other firms with large volumes of return mail.?

?We no longer receive bins of envelopes from the Post Office containing mail returns,? said Beverly Fisher, director of support services at RPM, Chicago, Illinois, an early RMI subscriber. ?This feature alone has allowed our clerks to concentrate their efforts on tasks other than opening and sorting mail returns. As a result, we have reduced our clerical staff by a third in our Self Pay Department.?

?Over the years, we worked with the Post Office program to obtain new addresses, but our results were very mixed with only a small percentage of return mail being cleared,? said Ronnie Elliott, retired president of LabSouth, Birmingham, Alabama. As a result of RMI automated systems, LabSouth was able to produce significant savings in excess of $250,000 per year and reduce their return mail staff from five to two people.

About RMI
Return Mail, Inc. (RMI) has developed automated systems that totally eliminate the handling of UAA (Undeliverable As Addressed) return mail from the U.S. Postal Service. RMI customers are freed from the cost burden associated with the manual handling and processing of return mail, and also benefit from an increase in A/R collections as more and more invoices get to their correct destinations. Thanks to patented automated systems from RMI, companies not only eliminate return mail, they preserve customers, improve cash flow and control fraud ? cost effectively and reliably. RMI, a privately held corporation located in Birmingham, Ala., was founded in 2000. The company can be reached toll free at 866-458-3110 or via email at info@poreturnmail.com.