U.S. Postal Service, Headquarters Purchasing, Room 4541, 475 L'Enfant Plaza, SW., Washington, DC 20260-6230

A -- SMART COLLECTION BOX SYSTEM (SCBS) DEVELOPMENT POC Mila L. da Silva, Tel. Facsimile Nos. 202/268-6332 or 202/314-7060 The U.S. Postal Service will issue a solicitation to develop a system of servers and instrumented collection boxes to help manage the collection of mail from streets, malls and other public locations. Suppliers will be invited to offer innovative solutions that meet or exceed the scope of the Statement of Work. Alternative proposals and multiple proposals will be allowed. A pre-proposal conference will be held. Technology demonstrations may be requested as part of proposal evaluation. Multiple awards are planned. The intended SCBS will be a system that communicates a range of data from within mail collection boxes to postal supervisors so that personnel can react promptly to conditions at external locations. Anticipated benefits include enhanced workfloor operating efficiency, analysis for optimizing routes and schedules, and service superiority relative to mail collected by competitors' collection boxes. By exercise of a contract option, a significant initial-quantity procurement award to one or more of the successful offerors is anticipated. The planned initial quantity includes servers, several thousand SCB units and near real-time communications. A subsequent national purchase of 100,000 units may be developed. Competition will most likely be limited to the initial successful offerors. Anticipated solicitation issuance date is June 17, 1998 with proposals due 40 days thereafter. Small, minority or women-owned businesses interested in subcontracting up to the third tier are strongly encouraged to respond. Contract award is planned for September, 1998 with proof of concept models expected before year end and first article pre-production units in Spring 1999. Mail your written request for the RFP to the indicated address or to FAX numbers 202/314-7060 or to 202/268-3888. NO TELEPHONE INQUIRIES PLEASE. (0147)

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