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In 1920, Arthur H. Pitney discovered that office workers were stealing his firm's stamps.
Pitney and Walter Bowes teamed up to develop and perfect a mechanical postal meter that rented for $10 a month. The first metered letter, metered by the Pitney-Bowes Postage Meter Co., was mailed Dec. 10, 1920.
While the meter was designed to end postage stamp theft, ways to thwart that security measure developed over the years. In an effort to eliminate the loss of more than $150 million per year in revenue, the U.S. Postal Service is mandating that all mechanical meters be phased out entirely by March 1999.
According to the Postal Service, the phaseout of mechanical postal meters began June 1, 1996, when the service sent out letters announcing its conversion time line to all meter customers. The first phaseout occurred March 31, when mechanical meters used to price mail for a fee or provide metering and mailing services were made obsolete.
According to the Postal Service, as office equipment industry evolved, significant advances in postage meter technology have resulted in the immediate availability of electronic and digital postage meters.
The new technology is much more reliable, simplifies the payment and collection of postage, and supports the Postal Service's requirements to enhance security of postage metering devices, according to the Postal Service. The driving force behind the phaseout of mechanical postage meters is the postal service's motivation to enhance the security of postal revenue and to provide customers with significantly improved features and benefits.
According to Wayne A. Wilkerson, manager of metering technology for the Postal Service, the changeover not only will eliminate theft, but will make metered postal work go faster for all companies that use mailing as part of their marketing and communication efforts.
According to Wilkerson, the electronic meters will allow for remote...