What is PD CEN/TS 16735 – Extensible common structure and representation for postal rates about?
PD CEN/TS 16735 is an international standard that focuses on postal services and the representation of postal rates. PD CEN/TS 16735 defines a uniform structure and meaning for the information that fully represents postal rates for a broad variety of postal products in all main categories. The postal rates definition is viewed as an important interface between posts and their customers and as such will benefit from standardization. Such representation of postal rates allows automated systems to uniformly use postal rates as they are introduced for new products or updated for existing postal products by postal operators. PD CEN/TS 16735 contains all necessary and sufficient information for both postal operators and their customers to efficiently create, respectively acquire, update and process postal product rates.
Note: PD CEN/TS 16735 does not define communication protocols that can be used by posts to distribute postal rates files to their customers. Suitable communication protocols are typically well known and already standardized (for example Web Services, File Transport Protocol, email, etc.).
PD CEN/TS 16735 also does not define the valuation of postal products as applied by postal operators and their customers.
Who is PD CEN/TS 16735 - Extensible common structure and representation for postal rates for?
PD CEN/TS 16735 on postal services and the representation of postal rates are useful for:
- Courier service providers
- Post offices
- Regulatory authorities
Why should you use PD CEN/TS 16735 - Extensible common structure and representation for postal rates?
Standards are important prerequisites for effective postal operations and for interconnecting the global network. Significant efficiency can be gained by implementing standards that define interconnectivity between postal operators and their customers. The postal sector is now facing the most challenging period in its long history. On the one hand, up to a few years ago, the postal sector in its letter mail market has not faced competition from new entrants because of the historically reserved areas and letterbox monopoly.
PD CEN/TS 16735 is an informative description and presentation document. PD CEN/TS 16735 is intended as a powerful and flexible tool capable of supporting both human and machine descriptions of postal rates with arbitrary complexity. By PD CEN/TS 16735, postal rate data files are messages that are structured by a specialized data representation language named Extensible Common Structure and Representation for Postal Rates (EPR).