July 28, 2013 USPS changes

I just saw that the USPS will be implementing changes on July 28, 2013. It seems as though when they start renaming existing services, things tend to break but it is probably premature to take any action other than watch for July 28.

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Express Mail is now Priority Mail Express

In addition to the name change, the estimated time of arrival will be printed on each of your labels. Either “1 DAY” or “2 DAY” will be printed for PME labels, depending on the actual estimated delivery time of the shipment.

Priority Mail now includes some USPS insurance

The amount of insurance you get is dependent upon the rates for which you are eligible. Commercial Base Pricing (CBP) and Retail rates get $50 of included insurance, while Commercial Plus Pricing (CPP) and Negotiated Service Agreement (NSA) rates get $100. Remember, Express 1 gives you CPP rates for a lot of their services for Priority & Express mail, and CBP for pretty much everything else in Priority & Express mail.

Some parts of the label have changed

Just like with the new Priority Mail Express labels having an estimated delivery time on them, so too will the “regular” Priority Mail labels. Unfortunately, these are auto-generated by the system based on the origin and destination, and there’s no way to specifically select 1, 2, or 3-day delivery. Additionally, you’ll also find a Carrier Routing code in the top right of the delivery address on the new labels. Most of you probably won’t know what it means, but it is a change to the overall layout of the label.

Electronic Delivery Confirmation is available for 13 more countries

Now your shipments going to Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada (which was previously available), Croatia, Denmark, France, Germany, United Kingdom, Israel, Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain, & Switzerland will automatically have the free Electronic Delivery Confirmation added.

Is this a concern and are their updates that need to be made to the USPS shipping module prior to 7/28 (using ZC 1.39h, 1.50 and 1.51)?

"Web Tools Customer,

USPS will release updates to the Web Tools APIs on 28 July 2013. The staging environment is currently open for testing your updated applications. You may review staging information and the release notes at the USPS Web Tools site here for more details.

If you rely upon a third-party developer (e.g. software or ecommerce/cart provider) for USPS products and services on your website or your shipping application, please direct any application-specific questions to them.

For questions and concerns, please contact our customer support at 1-800-344-7779 or [email protected].

Regards,
Web Tools Program Office"

I have received the same email today from USPS. Don't you like how much notice time they give a whole 10 days before it goes into effect.

We've been investigating this for a couple days.
We'll post back when there's an update available ... or whether any update is even needed.

(There will probably need to be a new module published ... and that'll be in the Plugins area.)

Thanks for looking into this. I hope it's an easy update (if it's needed at all)

Per the USPS, there will be changes to the Web Tools API implemented on July 28, 2013. Most notably, the names of express mail services are changing to "Priority Mail Express". It looks like the contents of the mail service info in the USPS responses will reflect this. Won't this change have an impact to the USPS shipping modules? Especially since the new names for "express" services also contain the word "priority".

USPS info and release notes here

A lot of changes to do the USPS July 28, 2013 shipping module ...

We are working on it, and will post it in the add-on plugins when it is done ...

Ajeh - Three days to go on this. I'm just wondering how testing is going?

We are working on this as fast as we can ...

I was going to have a test version for you guys yesterday ... then USPS changed the test server, again, and the results of all of the quote results ... so re-writing it all is again necessary along with testing before releasing it for your testing ...

I am definitely not amused by them changing things all over again, to say the least ... :blink:

We will release something as soon as we can for testing ...

Ajeh,
In reviewing the doc on the USPS site it appears that the changes to the rate quotes are renaming some services and adding additional services/options. Can you let me know if I've missed something? What did they change on the test servers that caused you to rewrite?

The docs were saying one thing regarding the method names and the test server was doing another so spent from the 22nd writing to work with the test server and then the test server changed again about 4 days later to be more in line with the docs but not 100% ... so, now we are re-writing for those changes and hope the test server is now what will be expected on the production server on the 28th ...

Hope to have something soon for you guys to test ...

Proving that procrastination does pay sometimes. I've been making changes to the advanced shipper mod for a couple clients and put off starting until a couple days ago. I guess the USPS had settled on things by then. ;-)

Lucky me ... I believed them when they said the server would be ready and started then ... :blink:

Get the new USPS shipping module in the plugins
http://www.zen-cart.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=1292

This is the:

• USPS RateV4 Intl RateV2 - January 27, 2013 Updates to: July 28, 2013 Version H

Please test this and report back any issues that you may experience ...

So far, so good ... just had to remember to set to the test server!

I'm getting the following echos to the top of my screen on checkout_shipping even though I've got debug set off:

while _getQuote before curl_exec: Jul 27 2013 20:36:12 1374950172
while _getQuote after curl_exec: Jul 27 2013 20:36:14 1374950174

P.S. Are the rates for Priority and Express (aka Priority Express) supposed to remain the same?

Would it be possible to add a notifier before returning from the install() and keys() functions? I've currently got a "minor" one-off version of the usps shipping method that has a couple of additional keys. These, in addition to the the notifier already in place in the quote() function, would allow me to be more independent of the USPS API-du-jour.

lat9:

So far, so good ... just had to remember to set to the test server!

I'm getting the following echos to the top of my screen on checkout_shipping even though I've got debug set off:

while _getQuote before curl_exec: Jul 27 2013 20:36:12 1374950172
while _getQuote after curl_exec: Jul 27 2013 20:36:14 1374950174

> P.S. Are the rates for Priority and Express (aka Priority Express) supposed to remain the same?

The Rates, should stay the same ...

The only difference so far on prices that I have noticed between the 3-27-2013 and now is that the Media Mail has a $0.20 price difference with all the various Special Services checked ... and I am too tired to figure out for you specifically which one is the $0.20 difference and whether that is a missed goober or USPS making a change on the Test Server vs the Production server ...

My mind is a little shot right now with all the fun and I am fooling with a few issues I do not like on this Beta to clean-up for the final release ... idea being streamline things a bit more rather than break something at the same time ... :blink:

lat9:

Would it be possible to add a notifier before returning from the install() and keys() functions? I've currently got a "minor" one-off version of the usps shipping method that has a couple of additional keys. These, in addition to the the notifier already in place in the quote() function, would allow me to be more independent of the USPS API-du-jour.

Adding these, at the end of their corresponding functions:
$this->notify('NOTIFY_SHIPPING_USPS_INSTALLED');
$this->notify('NOTIFY_SHIPPING_USPS_UNINSTALLED');
$this->notify('NOTIFY_SHIPPING_USPS_KEYS');

Get the new USPS shipping module in the plugins
http://www.zen-cart.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=1292

• USPS RateV4 Intl RateV2 - January 27, 2013 Updates to: July 28, 2013 Version H

I tested (on the USPS test server) with both Domestic and International. Domestic seems to be working fine.

International is including 2 classes of mail that I do NOT have selected. I tried it with the filter for First Class on and off and got the same (incorrect) results.

I am using "retail" rates for the cart. For international I have ONLY First Class Pkg Intl Service and Priority International F/R Med Box selected. Yet, I am getting two additional services on the estimator screen: First-Class Mail® International Letter and International Large Envelope - even though they are NOT selected in the module in admin. I did not test the International on the first beta you posted. (Forgot.) I uninstalled and reinstalled this latest version and then tested.

Thanks for any assistance on this. I have a ton of Intl customers.
By the way, Ajeh- thanks so much for jumping on this and putting in the extra hours to fix this!