Postal Update

Tuesday, October 7th, 2008

POSTAL UPDATE

Last month we sent you a bulletin about upcoming USPS regulations. Here is an update on those issues:

NCOA Processing – A reminder that the new rule takes effect November 23, 2008. For all standard mail, the minimum frequency of change-of-address processing will be 95 days instead of 185 days. This requirement applies to all Standard Mail – letters, flats, parcels and Not Flat-Machinables – as well as automation-rate and presort-rate First-Class Mail. This means that on November 23, 2008, any mailing must have addresses that were updated no earlier than August 20, 2008.

Address Location on Flats – This new regulation takes effect March 29, 2009. The USPS has created a two pager that is very explicit in detailing requirements. It can be accessed at Addressing Fact Sheet for Standard Flats.

From the site:

What Are The New Address Requirements?
The new requirements affect address characteristics (how the address looks) and address placement (where the address is located).

  • Mailers must address each piece using a minimum of 8-point type. Each character must be at least 0.080 inch high.
  • If the mailpiece bears a POSTNET or Intelligent Mail barcode with a delivery point routing code, mailers may use 6-point type in all capital letters. Each character must be at least 0.065 inch high.
  • On all automation pieces, the characters in the address must not overlap, the address lines must not touch or overlap, and each address element may be separated by no more than five blank character spaces. (A blank character space can equal the width of the widest letter used in the type.)
  • Mailers must place the delivery address in the “top half” of the mailpiece.

How Do I Determine The Top Half Of The Mailpiece?
There are several options. For enveloped or polywrapped pieces, and all saturation Carrier Route pieces, the “top” of the mailpiece is either of the shorter edges. For pieces that are not enclosed in envelopes or polywrap, the “top” is the upper edge when the bound edge (or the final fold) is vertical and on the right side of the piece.

Once you choose a top edge, measure halfway down the piece, and that’s the top half. Your address (recipient lines, delivery address lines, and city/state/ZIP Code line) must be entirely within the top half. If you have a shorter mailpiece, the address can run into the bottom half if you place it within an inch of the top edge.

You can place the delivery address on the front or the back of the mailpiece, but it must be on the same side as the postage. The address may be parallel or perpendicular to the top edge, but not upside-down as read in relation to the top edge. A perpendicular address can face to the left or the right.

Intelligent Mail Barcodes – In a letter from the Mailing Industry CEO Council which is posted on the postcom.org website, the council strongly urges the USPS offer “a meaningful price incentive in May 2009″ so that mailers can know what the benefits of adopting the full service Intelligent Mail Barcode will be before mailers commit expenditures on the changes required to their operational systems, which “may increase the cost of business by as much as 15% for some mailers.”

Catalogers must make sure that they understand thoroughly what the IMB requirements are and the changes they will require for how you operate. http://ribbs.usps.gov/OneCodeSolution

On a more comprehensive level, it is critical that we continue through industry associations such as ACMA (catalogmailers.org) whose lobbying efforts with the USPS are working to find solutions that are win-win for all parties. Otherwise postal services losses next year will exceed the projected $2.3 billion for this year and more catalogers will succumb to market pressures and decrease their operations or cease altogether.

Tags: , , , , , Category: Newsletter Articles. Both comments and pings are currently closed.