@wastingtime101 wrote:
In the absence of an acceptance scan I don't know what USPS uses - not something I ever thought about.
The Acceptance scan is considered to be the first in-network scan of the tracking barcode, regardless of where it occurs.
A scan by the Self-Serve Kiosk is considered a Provisional scan because the sender can simply walk back out with the package; it doesn't prove that the USPS has ownership of it. The PO is supposed to scan all packages when emptying the drop box, and that's when the provisional SSK scan is upgraded to a full acceptance. A SCAN sheet scan is also considered Provisional because it cannot by itself verify that every package represented by the SCAN sheet is actually present.
If a package evades any direct scan before it reaches the origin sort facility, then the first in-network scan it receives will be on one of their automated scanning/verification units, and that will create an Acceptance record for it in the database.
The Acceptance wording in the tracking log for this situation is unique: the text will read "Accepted at Origin Sort" (or similar), but the location given is not that of the sort facility; it's the city indicated by the Ship From ZIP of the label. (To my knowledge, that's the only tracking log entry that does not indicate the actual location where it occurred.)
