We do automated APO shipments, it returns 6 images (most of that is the CP-72) in PNGs format that I print on 4 8.5×11 pages. This covers APO, Puerto Rico & Guam for us, along with light packages. They also support outputting in ZPL, which works fine for our thermal label printers. You can buy cheap zebra 450′s from ebay, and buy a few spares, and they’ll print labels in bulk at roughly 1 a second. There are other output formats available, but that worked out perfectly for me.

My only problem is their server relibility has been a little off. About 1% of the time I have problems with it, and it spits back an error about their servers being down. If I make the same request a few seconds later, it magically works.

Haven’t tested their API yet, though the documentation is good.

Great post! We deal with many of the same issues. For our Dazzle integration, we built a client that constructs shipping xml and opens a shell to feed the xml into Dazzle. The tricky part is the recording of the response xml into our system. Would love to use the Label Server, which should be a lot faster than our way, but as far as I know it’s quite expensive. You had mentioned that it’s on par with the cost of Dazzle. The most expensive version of Dazzle is $34.95 a month, and I don’t think the Label Server is anywhere as low as that unless you have very low volume.

I am wondering however, how do you print the customs forms for International Priority / Express Mail with the Label Server? Can you print to thermal printers, or do you still need to use regular paper and regular laser jet?

Also, I am curious as to why you use your payment processor to verify mailing addresses (I didn’t even know that there are payment processors that can do that) if you are already using Fedex WebService to check for residential / business address. Don’t you already get the ‘verified address’ returned from Fedex?

Thanks.

I mean, USPS is a private corporation (cough cough), I guess they can sell to whomever they want right? And tell the rest of people to go buy it from them!

Thanks for the insightful work on this subject. You’ve confirmed what I’ve been nervously thinking. I’m guessing Endicia or possibly Stamps.com is the only way to go.

I had a nightmare last Christmas using their software with a printer that wouldn’t print right and it took me until March to get the “Balance” of my account (which I had cancelled after the free trial) returned. Not to mention they put me on “auto-dial” for another 3 months after that with all sorts of great offers to come back…Gag.

I had called USPS’s API support (if you can call it that) and after explaining: I understood I wasn’t going to be able “pay” for label using web tools, I asked how I would become an “provider” like Endicia or Stamps.com, he said he had no idea how that happened.

Asking if he knew anyone to call or email with that sort of information he said: “Nope”.

No wonder they loose $8,000,000,000 a year…

I like some of the ideas people have had about using their service (Web tools) combined with a little pulling and mashing of postage from another service like “Click-and-Ship”, I’ll keep watching the conversation and report any new findings.

Yeah, the guy made it sound like manifest mailing was different from permit imprint, but they sure sounded the same to me, too. Give Endicia or Stamps (now that they have a Web-based API, though I haven’t used it so I can’t vouch for it) a call.

The Endicia API is a little strange in spots, particularly for international shipments, but that seems to more a result of the USPS than anything that Endicia has done wrong.

The PDK is the COM object referenced above. We used it for years and it is fine for low volume, but it tosses up UI and does not work for APO or FCMI. I needed a solution that I could use without any user input.

Thanks for the excellent info. The Endicia solution is looking better now, especially since my client is already a customer. I just hate having to involve a 3rd party like that when the direct connection to the USPS _almost_ works.

I just checked and apparently Stamps.com has an API available here:
http://www.stamps.com/pdk/