Release Notes

Coming Soon to the Sandbox Test Environment

  • Get All Merchants will return information on carrier accounts for merchants who use multiple carriers.

Currently in the Sandbox Test Environment

  • ACH as the payment method for PB Postage Accounts.
  • Pure Post Return labels provide the option to use discounted pricing for package returns.

Released on 2019.07.11

  • If you use the Authorize a Merchant API to enroll merchants, you can now use a referral code to identify who referred a merchant to your software.

Released on 2019.07.09

  • The new Cross-Border Quote API retrieves estimates of the shipping costs, duties, and taxes for the items in a buyer’s shopping cart.

Released on 2019.06.15

Released on 2019-06-06

  • PB Cross-Border Carrier Service now integrates with the PB Shipping APIs. You can now use the APIs to ship internationally with PB Cross-Border.
  • The Tracking API now returns tracking information on First-Class Mail letters and flats, which use IMb labels.

Released on 2019-06-01

  • UPS® (United Parcel Service) integration. You can now integrate a merchant’s existing UPS account with the PB Shipping APIs. Merchants use existing API operations to print and track UPS labels. The APIs provide the following new operations for integrating a merchant’s UPS account: Register an Existing Carrier Account, Get Carrier License Agreement.
  • Shipping to APO/FPO/DPO destinations using the Bound Printed Matter (BPM) service is now supported. Parcels ship using the PKG parcel type and the PB Presort carrier service.

Released on 2019-05-21

  • The new PB Parcel Protection APIs let you obtain Parcel Protection quotes and request Parcel Protection coverage for shipments, including shipments created outside the PB Shipping APIs.

Released on 2019-05-13

  • The v4.0 Transaction Reports API now returns information within the hour for POSTAGE FUND transactions.
  • In the v4.0 Transaction Reports API, the new shipDetails query parameter lets you choose whether to return the following fields for each transaction:
    • dimensionalWeightOz
    • valueOfGoods
    • specialServices
    • customMessage1
    • customMessage2

Released on 2019-04-20

  • The new version (v4.0) of the Transaction Reports API returns information within the hour for the following:

    • POSTAGE PRINT transactions

    • POSTAGE REFUND requests

      Note that the resolution of a refund request is returned the same day that USPS approves or denies the refund.

    The API now also returns additional information about transactions. For more information, please see Transaction Reports.

Released on 2019-04-13

  • An issue has been fixed so that now if you ship from an APO/FPO/DPO address to an international address (i.e., an address that is not in the United States), the Create Shipment API works as expected. Previously the API had thrown an error.

Released on 2019-04-05

  • An issue with refund requests made between April 3 to 5, 2019, has been corrected. The issue had caused all refunds for those dates to be rejected. The issue is corrected, and all refunds requested on those dates will be resubmitted.

Released on 2019-03-16

Released on 2019-03-01

  • If you issue the Transaction Reports API and do not query for a specific transaction ID, parcel tracking number, or date range, the fromDate will default to 31 days prior to the current date.

Released on 2019-02-19

  • Pitney Bowes automatically credits and debits prepaid postage accounts with APV adjustments made by USPS. Pitney Bowes applies adjustments made by USPS February 1st and later.

    To view APV adjustments, use the Transaction Reports API.

Released on 2019-02-09

  • Improved error messages for address validation: In case of an incomplete or undeliverable address, the additionalInfo field in the error object will now provide a reason for the address validation failure. This applies to the Address Validation and Create Shipment APIs. As an example, if an address contains an unrecognized street name, the APIs will now return the following error:

    {
    "errorCode": "1019003",
    "errorDescription": "Either Invalid or missing street or stateProvince or postalcode ",
    "additionalInfo": "E411 - The street cannot be found in this locality.",
}

Released on 2019-02-01

  • Merchants can now use the Refill API to add funds to their PB Postage Accounts. Previously, merchants could perform refills only through the Merchant Portal.

Released on 2019-01-29

  • To bolster security of the Shipping APIs, Pitney Bowes made a change to deserialize incoming requests. This may introduce some request failures as the APIs now enforce a stricter validation when unexpected fields or values are present in the request body. In order to avoid failed requests, please follow specifications based on the PB Shipping APIs documentation.

Released on 2019-01-27

  • The USPS 2019 rate changes are now in production.
  • The Shipping APIs now provide the option to use a standard error format for all errors encountered. To use the standard format, you must set the X-PB-UnifiedErrorStructure header to true with each API call. Without the header, the APIs use multiple formats. For more information, see Error Object.

Released on 2018-11-22

  • CN 22 and CP 72 customs forms now accommodate more characters in the To and From address blocks by allowing lower-case characters. Previously, Pitney Bowes had converted all characters in the blocks to CAPS. Now Pitney Bowes prints the characters as typed by the merchant, whether lower or upper case. Note that Pitney Bowes still converts state and country to caps, per USPS rules.

Released on 2018-11-03

  • The PRINT_CUSTOM_MESSAGE_2 shipment option now prints up to 102 characters (three lines of 34 characters each) on 4X6 USPS domestic labels. See Shipment Options.

Released on 2018-10-27

  • You can specify the DPI for PNG shipping labels using the documents.resolution field. For details, see description of resolution in the documents object.
  • For Newgistics shipments, you can now print 4X5 labels, in addition to 4X6 labels.

Released on 2018-09-29

  • You can now subscribe a Newgistics shipment to receive provisioned transit triggers by including the NOTIFICATIONS special service in the Create Newgistics Shipment request. The merchant must be configured for transit triggers with Newgistics.
  • You can now print custom messages on Newgistics labels using the PRINT_CUSTOM_MESSAGE_2 shipment option when creating a Newgistics shipment. See Shipment Options.

Released on 2018-09-06

  • As part of enhanced payment security, the Sign Up a Merchant API call now requires you to pass the accessToken that was returned in the response of the Payment Iframe API call. You pass the accessToken in the token query parameter when issuing the Sign Up a Merchant API call.

Released on 2018-08-23

  • The minimum supported security protocol for connection to the PB Shipping APIs is TLS v1.2.

Released on 2018-08-17

  • You can now map client-generated identifiers to fields in the Newgistics package record. Use the new references field when creating Newgistics shipments. This applies only to Newgistics shipments.
  • The PB Shipping APIs now offer PB Parcel Protection.

Released on 2018-07-29

Released on 2018-06-15

  • Merchants can now use the PB Shipping APIs to print USPS-compliant Newgistics labels.
  • Merchants can now print PB Presort Labels for the following services: Bound Printed Matter (BPM), Standard Mail (STANDARD).

Released on 2018-05-26

  • The Rate a Parcel and Create a Shipment APIs now determine the best rate for a soft pack from among these three rates: weight-based, 3-dimensional cubic, and 2-dimensional cubic. The APIs price the soft pack according to the most cost-effective rate. In previous releases, soft pack pricing was based only on the 2-dimensional cubic rate. For more information, see this FAQ.

Released on 2018-05-11

  • The Transaction Reports API supports the following new query values:
    • For the transactionType query parameter, the new query value APV-POSTAGE ALL returns all APV adjustments at once, both overpaid and underpaid.
    • For the printStatus query parameter, the new query value SBR returns all SBR labels, both scanned and not yet scanned.

Released on 2018-04-19

  • Additional validations are now made on the merchant contact information sent through the Sign Up a Merchant and Register a Merchant APIs. A merchant’s address cannot contain a P.O. Box, and a merchant’s phone number must be valid. The validation changes meet USPS compliance requirements.

Released on 2018-03-09

  • The new Get Account Balances API retrieves the current balances for a PB Postage Account and PB Line of Credit.

Released on 2018-02-20

Released on 2018-01-21

  • The USPS January 2018 Rate Changes have been deployed to the production environment. The rate changes reflect an average 3.9 percent increase across all shipping services. The changes affect both domestic and international shipping products, including Priority Mail, Priority Mail Express, and Priority Mail International. For more information, see USPS Announces Shipping Services Rate Changes for January 2018.
  • Registered Mail (Reg) and Registered Mail with Insurance (RegIns) are no longer available with Priority Mail Padded Flat Rate Envelopes (PFRENV).
  • In accordance with the January 2018 USPS changes, First-Class Mail International (FCMI) shipments may contain only documents, not goods. When using FCMI, you must set the customs object’s reasonForExport field to DOCUMENTS. Goods that were formerly shipped via FCMI are eligible to be shipped via First-Class Package International Service (FCPIS) and other services.

Released on 2018-01-07

Released on 2017-09-16

Released on 2017-08-26

  • Pitney Bowes now offers an Auto Refund service that submits unused, prepaid labels for electronic refund on your behalf. To enable the the Auto Refund service for your account, please contact PB Support at ShippingAPISupport@pb.com.
  • The new Merchant Signup API allows merchants to sign up for their own PB Postage Accounts directly within your application. You control the complete end-user experience within your application, while the Merchant Signup API securely handles merchant payment information through third-party payment services.
  • The Create Shipment API now generates a single-ply customs declaration form for shipments to APO/FPO/DPO destinations and to participating countries. As of this writing, the following countries participate: Australia, Canada, and Costa Rica. For more information on customs forms, see this FAQ.

Released on 2017-07-22

  • The new Pickups API allows merchants to schedule carrier pickups and, when necessary, to cancel previously scheduled pickups.
  • The Rate Parcel and Create Shipment APIs now support printing a First-Class Letter with an Intelligent Mail barcode (IMb). For details, see this FAQ on IMb.
  • The Rate Parcel and Create Shipment APIs now support the Soft Pack (SOFTPACK) parcel type. Soft packs are flexible packages that adhere and conform to the contents being packaged, in order to take up minimum cubic space.

Released on 2017-07-09

  • You can now create shipments that use USPS Scan-Based Return (SBR) labels, as described in Create a USPS Scan-Based Return Label. Unlike prepaid return labels, SBR labels do not incur postage charges at the time of print. Postage is deducted only when the return label is scanned into the USPS mail stream. You can view the status of an SBR label in the new printStatus field returned in the transaction object by the Transaction Reports API call.

    To enable SBR service, please contact the PB support team at ShippingAPISupport@pb.com.

  • The new Suggest Addresses API provides address suggestions, when they’re available. The response can contain up to 20 suggestions. Results are not sorted by priority.

    Note: The Validate an Address API has not changed.

  • The new Get Carrier Rules API retrieves USPS rules for domestic and international shipments. The rules provide information on weight/dimension constraints and on service compatibility.

  • When using the Rate Parcel API, you can now leave out the parcelType, serviceId, or both, allowing merchants to find rates for multiple parcel types and services with one call. You can also specify special services in the rate request and obtain the special service fee in the response.

  • The Rate Parcel and Create Shipment APIs support two new parcel types with Priority Mail International (PMI):

    • DVD Flat Rate Box (DVDBOX)
    • Large Video Flat Rate Box (VIDEOBOX)

Released on 2017-06-10

  • The parcel object, which is used in the Create Shipment and Rate Parcel APIs, now includes two new fields for specifying the value of the parcel: valueOfGoods and currencyCode.

    Note: valueOfGoods is independent of the insured, COD, and customs values. If you add insurance or COD as a special service, you still must define the associated INPUT_VALUE in the rates.specialServices array. If you create an international shipment, you still must declare the customs value in the customsInfo.customsDeclaredValue field.

  • The Create Shipment API now automatically reassigns values in the parcel.dimension object to ensure length is the longest dimension, followed by height, followed by width.

  • The Create Shipment API now generates customs forms for U.S. territories, possessions, and Freely Associated States. Hence, Create Shipment now requires customs data for shipments to U.S. territories (except VI & PR), U.S. possessions, and Freely Associated States, in accordance with USPS rules.

  • The Create Shipment API now returns an error if the declared value for customs exceeds $400 for either of the following two services: First-Class Mail International, First-Class Package International Service. This follows USPS rules.

Released on 2017-05-31

  • Adult Signature Required and Adult Signature Restricted Delivery are now supported with the Rate Parcel and Create Shipment APIs.
  • The Create Manifest API now allows you to both list shipments and specify a Shipper ID. If a listed shipment does not belong to the specified Shipper ID, the API returns an error. See Create a Manifest.
  • Support has been removed for deprecated USPS STCs (Service Type Codes).

Released on 2017-05-12