Electronic USPS Delivery Confirmation ®

Postal Explorer

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Electronic USPS Delivery Confirmation ®
(E-USPS DELCON INTL ®)

Quarterly Data Download and Deployment Process
Standard Operating Procedure

Version: 1.1
IT Global, Sales, and Infrastructure Portfolio
United States Postal Service

OVERVIEW
STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURE
SPECIAL TIMELINE FOR Q2 RELEASE (DECEMBER-JANUARY HOLIDAYS)
EDELCON DATA FILE SPECIFICATIONS

OVERVIEW

The FCPIS product provides USPS customers with an efficient and cost-effective means to send light-weight and low-value packages internationally. USPS is a member of the PRIME consortium, which is a group of foreign posts that have the capability to exchange tracking data for small packets. It is based on the PRIME Exprès and Tracked multilateral agreements that USPS is able to provide its customers with Electronic USPS Delivery Confirmation ® (E-USPS DELCON INTL® or EDELCON) tracking to most major ecommerce markets.

The following process will enable USPS to efficiently expand EDELCON capability to additional countries on a quarterly basis and quickly update USPS systems to reflect when new countries sign on or off to PRIME Exprès or PRIME Tracked.

STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURE

EDELCON Update Provided on Postal Explorer:
- Files:
  - Updated EDELCON Data Files will be served as two (2) text files within one (1) zip file labeled: 'YYYY QQ EDELCON Country List Data.zip'. Example: '2018 Q2 EDELCON Country List Data.zip'
  - EDELCON Data Files include one (1) complete file and one (1) delta file.
    Complete file is labeled: 'YYYY QQ EDELCON Full Country List.txt'
    Example: '2018 Q2 EDELCON Full Country List.txt'
    Delta file is labeled: 'YYYY QQ EDELCON Country List of Changes.txt'
    Example: '2018 Q2 EDELCON Country List of Changes.txt'
  - Updated EDELCON Human Readable File will be served separately as one (1) Microsoft Excel spreadsheet file labeled: 'YYYY QQ EDELCON Country List Human Readable.xslx' Human Readable file is not served in the EDELCON Country List Data zip file. This is a human readable version of the complete text file.
    Example: '2018 Q2 EDELCON Country List Human Readable.xlsx'
- URL:
  - Updated EDELCON Country List Data zip file and EDELCON Human Readable File will be provided on Postal Explorer at: pe.usps.com/eDelconCountryList/index
- Timeline:
  - Monday before 1st Friday of 1st month of Quarter:
    Global Business provides updated EDELCON country list to Price Engine
  - 1st Friday of 1st month of Quarter:
    Price Engine posts one (1) updated EDELCON Country List Data zip file containing two (2) updated text files (complete and delta file) to Postal Explorer
  - 3rd Friday of 1st month of Quarter:
    Price Engine ingests complete and/or delta file and deploys changes
EDELCON Country List Deployed in All EDELCON and FCPIS PRIME Content Systems:
- USPS IT Systems (GSS, RSS*) and External Software Vendors:
  - 1st Friday of 1st month of Quarter:
    Download new EDELCON Country List Data zip file from Postal Explorer and unzip complete and delta text files
  - 3rd Friday of 1st month of Quarter:
    Ingest complete and/or delta text file and deploy changes
- USPS.com (FAQ):
  - 1st Friday of 1st month of Quarter:
    Download new EDELCON Country List Data zip file from Postal Explorer and unzip complete and delta text files
  - 3rd Friday of 1st month of Quarter:
    Ingest complete and/or delta text file and push changes live

*RSS will deploy the updated country list as FCPIS PRIME countries. EDELCON is temporarily suspended at Retail as of 10/13/2017.

SPECIAL TIMELINE FOR Q2 RELEASE (DECEMBER-JANUARY HOLIDAYS)

EDELCON Update Provided on Postal Explorer:
- Files:
  - Updated EDELCON Data Files will be served as two (2) text files within one (1) zip file labeled: 'YYYY QQ EDELCON Country List Data.zip'. Example: '2018 Q2 EDELCON Country List Data.zip'
  - EDELCON Data Files include one (1) complete file and one (1) delta file.
    Complete file is labeled: 'YYYY QQ EDELCON Full Country List.txt'
    Example: '2018 Q2 EDELCON Full Country List.txt'
    Delta file is labeled: 'YYYY QQ EDELCON Country List of Changes.txt'
    Example: '2018 Q2 EDELCON Country List of Changes.txt'
  - Updated EDELCON Human Readable File will be served separately as one (1) Microsoft Excel spreadsheet file labeled: 'YYYY QQ EDELCON Country List Human Readable.xslx'. Human Readable file is not served in the EDELCON Country List Data zip file. This is a human readable version of the complete text file.
    Example: '2018 Q2 EDELCON Country List Human Readable.xlsx'
- URL:
  - Updated EDELCON Country List Data zip file and EDELCON Human Readable File will be provided on Postal Explorer at: pe.usps.com/eDelconCountryList/index
- Timeline:
  - Monday before the 3rd Friday of December (last month of Q1):
    Global Business provides updated EDELCON country list to Price Engine
  - 3rd Friday of December (last month of Q1):
    Price Engine posts one (1) updated EDELCON Country List Data zip file containing two (2) updated text files (complete and delta file) to Postal Explorer
  - 3rd Friday of January (first month of Q2):
    Price Engine ingests complete and/or delta file and deploys changes
EDELCON Country List Deployed in All EDELCON and FCPIS PRIME Content Systems:
- USPS IT Systems (GSS, RSS*) and External Software Vendors:
  - 3rd Friday of December (last month of Q1):
    Download new EDELCON Country List Data zip file from Postal Explorer and unzip complete and delta text files
  - 3rd Friday of January (first month of Q2):
    Ingest complete and/or delta text file and deploy changes
- USPS.com (FAQ):
  - 3rd Friday of December (last month of Q1):
    Download new EDELCON Country List Data zip file from Postal Explorer and unzip complete and delta text files
  - 3rd Friday of January (first month of Q2):
    Ingest complete and/or delta text file and push changes live

*RSS will deploy the updated country list as FCPIS PRIME countries. EDELCON is temporarily suspended at Retail as of 10/13/2017.

EDELCON Data file specifications

EDELCON Data Files:

Complete File:
1. Description: Contains a complete list of participating EDELCON and FCPIS PRIME countries.
2. Naming Convention: YYYY QQ EDELCON Full Country List. Example: 2018 Q2 EDELCON Full Country List. YYYY indicates the Fiscal Year and QQ indicates the Quarter for the scheduled update. Complete File name will not change to reflect quarterly updates for which there are no changes to the EDELCON country list.
Delta File:
1. Description: Contains a delta list of only countries whose EDELCON and FCPIS PRIME status has changed since the last quarterly update.
2. Format: caret (^) separated value text files with .txt extension
3. Naming Convention: YYYY QQ EDELCON Country List of Changes. Example: 2018 Q2 EDELCON Country List of Changes. YYYY indicates the Fiscal Year and QQ indicates the Quarter for the scheduled update. Delta File name will not change to reflect quarterly updates for which there are no changes to the EDELCON country list.
File Format:
Complete and delta files are caret (^) separated value text files with .txt extension.
Logic:
Countries will be added to complete and delta list only as EDELCON: TRUE status. Countries will not be added to complete and delta list as EDELCON: FALSE status. Countries previously listed in complete list may be changed from EDELCON: TRUE to EDELCON: FALSE or from EDELCON: FALSE to EDELCON: TRUE status. Countries added to complete and delta list will remain on complete list, even if changed later to EDELCON: FALSE status.

Record Layout:
Both files use the same detail record layout described in the chart below. Fields in the detail record are variable length separated by a caret (^) symbol. The first record of the file, a header record, precedes the detail records and contains only the field names.

Field Name	Type	Description
Country ID	Numeric	A unique 5-digit identifier assigned by USPS.
Name	Alpha Numeric	The name of each individual country or locality as identified in the International Mail Manual - Index of Countries and Localities. Localities without their own individual IMM entry are listed as found in the index along with their parent country in parenthesis; e.g.: Corsica (France).
Code	Alpha Numeric	The two (2) character ISO country code. Countries defined as postal localities will be identified by the code of their parent country; e.g.: Monaco (France) will contain the ISO country code of "FR".
Country Number	Numeric	A 3-digit identifier assigned for use by USPS systems.
IsParent	Alpha Numeric (Boolean)	A value of "True" indicates the country appears in the IMM Individual Country List. A value of "False" indicates a locality without a unique entry in the Individual Country List but associated with a parent country. In this case, the Name field will identify the parent country in parenthesis.
eDelCon	Alpha Numeric (Boolean)	A value of "True" indicates a participating EDELCON country. A value of "False" indicates a non-participating country.