1. The Contractor shall provide pick-up of USPS properly metered mail from the State using agencies designated by the contract, the locations designated by participating agencies or any alternate location designated by the agency. 2. Pick-up times shall be scheduled and arranged by mutual agreement between the State-using agency and the Contractor. It shall be the Contractor’s responsibility to contact and coordinate pick-up times with all the State using agencies, prior to contract start up. 3. The Contractor shall pickup all mail between the hours of 3:00 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. All mail picked up during this time shall be postmarked by the State Agency or Institution with the date of the next business day. The Contractor shall be responsible for presorting/bar-coding and transporting this mail to the presort acceptance unit of the USPS prior to the cut-off time for presort acceptance on the postmarked date. 4. All residual mail that does not qualify for pre-sort discounts shall be processed in accordance with the USPS rate within twenty-four (24) hours of receipt from the agency and delivered to the processing facility. The Contractor shall Pre-Pay all residual charges due to the USPS, for all mail not qualifying as presort, thereby guaranteeing a one hundred (100%) percent qualification on all pre-sort-able daily mail. The residual/prepaid charges shall be reported to the participating State agency, on the weekly invoice for payment. 5. Return at no cost to the participating State agency/institution any certified/International or insured mail of any kind. 6. Sort each piece of mail into zip code sequence /zip + 4 / 3-digit barcode / 5-digit barcode. 7. Guarantee that all sorting/bar coding is performed according to the requirements of the USPS, and that the mail is delivered to the proper USPS designated facility by the appropriate deadline. All services shall be performed within the State of Maryland. 8. The contractor shall treat ALL pieces of mail processed under this contract as confidential and shall exercise all reasonable care and precaution to prevent any information derived from such items while in the possession of the contractor from being disclosed to any other party. 9. The contractor shall provide each participating State User with a three (3) part receipt form which contains the following information: a. a. Date of pickup b. b. Agency name and address c. c. Agency/Institution’s Contract Representative and Courier’s signature d. d. Any other information necessary to ensure the integrity and accuracy of the volume. e. Refund Amount for Residual Mail not qualifying as presort. 10. Distribution of the receipt copies shall be as follows: a. First copy of the receipt shall be provided to the User at the time of pickup. b. b. Second copy of the receipt shall accompany the weekly invoice to the User. 11. Prior to the effective date of the contract, the Contractor shall have all the necessary equipment and personnel, inclusive of the security requirements at the facility for which work will be performed under this contract. 12. The contractor’s facility shall be located within the Baltimore/Annapolis Metropolitan area. 13. The Contractor shall provide online National Change of Address (NCOA) updates for all mail processed under this contract, applying new forwarding addresses as required and forwarding any mail marked “Do Not Forward” back to the originating Agency. 14. The Contractor shall provide all trays and mail cages to various agencies at no charge. 15. Pre-Sort mail services under this contract shall be performed within the State of Maryland. Any mail taken out of the State of Maryland to be processed or postmarked shall be considered a breach of contract and shall be cause to consider the Contractor in default. 16. Pre-sort mail must be presented and processed through the main Baltimore SCF Postal Facility. 17. ALL mail must be in full compliance and use the USPS Intelligent Mail Barcode (IMB). 18. Failure to present to the USPS Presort Acceptance Unit (USPS-PAU) prior to the scheduled cutoff time of the postmarked date shall require the Contractor to incur any additional postage penalties. The State will not reimburse the Contractor for these additional charges. 19. Failure of the contractor to be fully operational at the scheduled facility by the contract start date, shall be considered a breach of contract and shall be cause to consider the Contractor in default.
