Siemens announced today that it has been awarded a $54.6 million contract modification from the United States Postal Service (USPS) for additional mail sorting equipment.

The award encompasses an additional 110 Delivery Bar Code Sorter (DBCS 6) machines to expand USPS’ existing fleet of letter sorting equipment. Siemens will provide installation and associated integrated logistics support services for the new machines in addition to carts used to transport trays of sorted mail. Production and installation of the DBCS 6 order is expected to be completed by April 31, 2008. This is the second order for the DBCS 6. In November 2006, Siemens was awarded a $109.4 million contract for 211 of those machines.

The DBCS is the most widely deployed mail-processing platform for letters within the Postal Service with more than 6,000 machines operating nationwide. Almost every letter will pass through these machines several times as it makes its way through the postal network. The need for additional equipment is driven by the 2 million delivery points, comprising U.S. households and businesses that the Postal Service will be adding to its service over the next year.

“The DBCS continues to be essential to Postal Service operations,” said Lukas Loeffler, vice president, Postal Automation of Siemens in the U.S. “We work closely with the USPS to adapt the machine to changes in the mail base and to greater productivity requirements.”

source: Siemens