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Drop Shipment Management System

The Drop Shipment Management System, or DSMS, is a USPS program that consolidates plant-verified drop shipment documentation from multiple jobs and locations in electronic files. Authorized mailers and consolidators use it to build consolidated loads of palletized mail, described on electronically created PS Forms 8125-CD.

Updated October 31, 202617 sources

What it is

DSMS works within plant-verified drop shipment, a procedure for verifying and paying for mail at the mailer's plant. The mailer then transports the mail to destination postal facilities for acceptance. Under DSMS, authorized users consolidate loads of palletized plant-verified mail from multiple jobs and mailing locations.

An ordinary PS Form 8125 proves to the entry facility that the mail was verified and paid for at origin. The origin postal employee fills in its signature, round date and origin Post Office fields. PS Form 8125-CD, the DSMS form, bears no acceptance employee signature and no origin Post Office round stamp date.

DSMS is limited to mailings that acceptance employees verify during production at the mailer's plant. They work at a Detached Mail Unit, an area in the mailer's facility where postal employees verify and accept mail.

DSMS takes parcels, Periodicals and Standard Mail. USPS's glossary of postal terms names Bound Printed Matter in place of parcels.

How it works

A DSMS shipment starts at the plant, where Detached Mail Unit employees verify each mailing during production. The mailer or consolidator then builds consolidated loads of palletized mail from multiple jobs and mailing locations. PS Forms 8125-CD are created from electronic data and describe the consolidated mailings in the shipment.

The mailer books each drop as an appointment in FAST, the Facility Access and Shipment Tracking system. The form carries the FAST appointment number. The mail goes to the facility that the form names.

At the destination facility, USPS scans the barcode on the form when it accepts the drop shipment. The scan works the same way for every variation of PS Form 8125, PS Form 8125-CD among them.

Who can use it

A DSMS authorization covers one of these types of user:

  • A mailer with a single production facility.
  • A mailer with multiple production plants, acting as its own consolidator.
  • A consolidator that receives mail from multiple mailers or customers.
  • A firm that consolidates mailings from multiple mailers or customers but produces none of its own.

A consolidator is a mailing agent who aggregates plant-verified mailings from individual mailers into a single mailing. A consolidator may have multiple consolidation locations.

The form's barcode

The barcode on PS Form 8125 holds an Electronic File Number, the number that identifies one transmission of a mailer's electronic manifest. It sits in the Comment section in the lower right-hand corner of the form. The Electronic File Number on the form uses Service Type Code 750.

The scan at acceptance appears in the mailer's extract files as event TM, Shipment Acceptance. It links the actual date and time of entry to the mailer's Shipping Services file. USPS Tracking shows it as acceptance, with the date, time, city, state and ZIP Code of the scan.

PTR Domestic Scan Events, October 2026, TM

Event
TM
Extract description
SHIPMENT RECEIVED ACCEPTANCE PENDING
USPS.com wording
Shipment Received, Package Acceptance Pending
Status category
Accepted

DSMS and eInduction

eInduction is the USPS process that verifies drop shipment containers with electronic documentation, Intelligent Mail container barcodes and handheld scanners. Surface Visibility sites are those with scanning technology that downloads data on expected containers from PostalOne! at acceptance.

In May 2015, USPS planned to replace DSMS authorization with eInduction. At that time, it gave no new DSMS authorizations. The one exception was a mailer in eInduction at Surface Visibility sites that asked for authorization only at other sites. Once a site is on both eInduction and Seamless Acceptance, USPS retires the Detached Mail Unit clerk's release of containers under the mailer's DSMS system.

In July 2026, USPS deleted section 2-4-2.1.4, DSMS, from Publication 685. PostalPro offers the DSMS application form to new mailers and consolidators.

Authorizations after 2015

The sources don't say whether USPS has granted new DSMS authorizations since May 2015.

Rules

The full requirements are in the Drop Ship Management System Program Guide.

A PS Form 8125 with a barcode containing an Electronic File Number must accompany all non-USPS Ship Plant Verified Drop Shipments presented for distribution at a postal facility.

Every plant-verified drop shipment, other than one sent through USPS Ship, must arrive with a PS Form 8125 whose barcode holds an Electronic File Number.

If you intend to prepare mailings under DSMS at a number of locations, a separate application must be prepared for each mailing location.

A mailer that prepares DSMS mailings at several locations must send a separate application for each one.

If a consolidator intends to use more than one consolidation facility, each location must be separately approved; however, all locations may apply simultaneously with one application.

Each consolidation facility must have its own approval. A consolidator may apply for all of them at once, on one application.

FAST appointments are required for drop ship mailings and all mailer transported, origin entered mail verified at a DMU

To claim Full-Service, a drop ship mailing must have a FAST appointment. So must any mail the mailer carries after a Detached Mail Unit verifies it at origin.

The mailing must correspond to the information on PS Form 8125.

The mail in the shipment must match what the form says.

The Mailer must accurately match pallets with Drop-Shipment documentation

The mailer must match each pallet to the drop shipment documentation.

The “Comment” section in the lower right-hand corner of PS Form 8125 is designated as the location for this barcode; no other barcode may be placed here.

The Electronic File Number barcode goes in the Comment section, in the lower right-hand corner. No other barcode may go there.

What goes wrong

For an ordinary PS Form 8125, a copy in place of the original delays acceptance at destination. The mailer must present the original, signed, round-dated form. When a form needs changes at destination, the mailer generates new forms.

Pallets go wrong in these ways:

  • They exceed the maximum height, weight or number of stacked pallets.
  • Their shrink wrap isn't secure.
  • Their placards are buried under shrink wrap, out of sight of scanners.
  • Their placards are crushed under the weight of other pallets.

Terms

Drop Shipment Management SystemDSMS
The Drop Shipment Management System (DSMS) program allows authorized users to streamline the Plant-Verified Drop Shipment (PVDS) process through consolidating PVDS documentation from multiple jobs and mailing locations in electronic files.
Plant-Verified Drop ShipmentPVDS
A procedure that enables origin verification and postage payment for shipments transported by the mailer from the mailer’s plant to destination postal facilities for acceptance as mail.
PS Form 8125Form 8125
This form provides proof to the entry facility that the mail being presented by the mailer or mailer’s agent was verified and paid for at origin.
PS Form 8125-CDForms 8125-CD
Forms 8125-CD’s are created using electronic data and describe the consolidated mailings in the PVDS shipment.
Detached Mail UnitDMU, Delivery Mail Unit
Detached Mail Unit (A BMEU located at a mailer’s mail production plant)
Consolidator
A mailing agent who aggregates mailings into a single mailing, especially plant-verified drop shipment (PVDS) mailings, prepared by individual mailers and cleared at the origin office. The consolidator then transports the aggregated mailing for entry at a destination facility such as a sectional center facility.
drop shipment
Typically the movement of a mailer’s product on private (nonpostal) transportation from the point of production to a postal facility located closer to the destination of that product. The pieces in a mailer’s drop shipment mailings frequently receive a reduced price or discount based on mail class or product. USPS also provides drop shipment service for mailings via Priority Mail Express service or Priority Mail service.
destination entry
(1) The deposit of plant-verified drop shipment mail by the mailer at a postal facility such as a delivery unit, sectional center facility, or network distribution center that serves the delivery address of the mail. (2) A price category or discount for certain types of mail.
Electronic File NumberEFN
Electronic File Number uniquely identifies the transmission of an electronic manifest, and must be unique for a period of 120-days. It is located in the header record of the Shipping Services File.
eInductionEIN, electronic Induction, eInduction program, eInduction Pilot program
The electronic Induction (eInduction) process streamlines the preparation and induction (how and where the mail physically enters the USPS mailstream) of drop shipments and expedited plant load mailings.
Facility Access and Shipment TrackingFAST, Facility Access & Shipment Tracking, Facilities Access and Shipment Tracking, Facilty Access and Shipment Tracking, Facility Access and Shipment Tracking (FAST) system, Facility Access Shipment Tracking (FAST) system
provides business mail owners, preparers, and schedulers enhanced visibility of their scheduled mailings at each facility.

Documents

User Guides

Fact Sheets

Contact Lists

Applications/Forms

Contacts

Mailers send DSMS applications to the Manager of Business Mailer Support. Consolidators send theirs to the same manager. The USPS Help Desk answers questions about FAST at fast@usps.gov or 1-877-569-6614.

Sources