1. 1 USPS RESTRICTED INFORMATION MTAC WORKGROUP #73 Soft Parcel Field Study

2. 2 USPS RESTRICTED INFORMATION SELVAGE (excess packaging material) Determined to be the main focus for discussion Machinability Jamming of equipment BMC and Shipper Facility Tours showed No evidence of Selvage causing undue damage, or “debris” in the conveyance equipment Machinability Guidelines do not address size relationship of goods within packaging, to packaging itself “SELVAGE RATIO”= Selvage Length/Total Parcel Length

3. 3 USPS RESTRICTED INFORMATION Sampling of Parcels Test Scheduled for the week of May 26 th, 2003 at the Cincinnati BMC Soft Parcel Shippers to assemble a range of parcels and ship them to Cinti BMC for documenting, and testing Participating Companies Brylane LL Bean Newport News Spiegel Other Volunteers Contact: tallshou@email.usps.gov bbriskey@brylane.com

4. 4 USPS RESTRICTED INFORMATION Parameters for Parcel Sampling DEGREES OF SELVAGE “No Apparent” Selvage “Reasonable” Selvage (5 to 20% selvage Ratio) Parcels with “Inordinate Selvage”, (may be shipped in error due to poor material handling/packing -20 to 40% selvage ratio) Parcels with selvage of a degree that would “Never Be Shipped” (greater than 40% selvage ratio)

5. 5 USPS RESTRICTED INFORMATION OTHER PARAMETERS All Parcels will be mailed in packaging material no greater than 34 x 17 x 17 and no greater than 35lbs. Half Bar-Coded, Half Non Bar-Coded Bar-Coded Parcels will be run on SSIU only Non Bar-Coded Parcels will be run on PSM and SSIU Each participant will provide 10 packages of each criteria with Intra-BMC address