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Reply Envelopes Must Meet New Barcoding Requirements in May 2011 |
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Written by Administrator
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Wednesday, 01 September 2010 16:14 |
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In May 2011, the USPS will be discontinuing the Postnet barcode in favor of he Intelligent Mail Barcode (IMB). The IMB allows more information to be encoded in a similar amount of space, allowing the USPS to offer more versatility in the barcode.
Post Masters has already made the transition to the IMB for all of the mail we address and barcode. The situation our customers need to be aware of is that their pre-printed reply envelopes will need to be re-designed to this new standard.
If you are using a Business Reply Envelope, Courtesy Reply Envelope, Metered Reply Envelope, or Permit Reply Envelope, make sure you have your envelopes re-designed prior to your next re-order. You will no longer be able to use reply envelopes with a Postnet barcode beginning in May 2011.
A Postnet barcode is a series of tall and short bars with a common baseline.
An Intelligent Mail barcode is made of four types of bars, ascenders, descenders, full bars and tracking bars, with a baseline in the center of the barcode.
The United States Postal Service has Mailpiece Design Analysts to assist you in obtaining the correct camera-ready artwork for your reply envelopes. To find the MDA in your area, go to http://pe.usps.gov/mpdesign/mpdfr_mda_lookup.asp. As always, don’t hesitate to use Post Masters as a resource if you have any questions. |
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USPS Discontinues Round Stamped Postage Statements |
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Written by Administrator
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Wednesday, 14 April 2010 15:08 |
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For many years, mailers had been providing duplicate Postage Statements with mailings when they were entered at the USPS. To show that the mailing was accepted, the USPS would date stamp the duplicate Postage Statement and return it to the mailer. This duplicate copy would also reflect any adjustments that were made as a result of the acceptance process.
In order to streamline the acceptance process and reduce additional paperwork, USPS facilities with PostalOne! access will no longer provide these stamped copies. PostalOne is an internet-based USPS tool for mailers. With PostalOne!, mailers will be able to retrieve information about mailings that were submitted on their postal permits. Information on this new proceedure can be found at http://pe.usps.gov/FRN/Electronic_Postage_Statements_proposed.pdf. Information on PostalOne! can be found at http://www.usps.com/postalone/welcome.htm.
If you are a permit holder with the USPS, Post Masters encourages you to sign up for PostalOne! access. |
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Last Updated on Wednesday, 14 April 2010 15:23 |
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USPS Revises Move Update Enforcement Policy |
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Written by Administrator
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Tuesday, 18 August 2009 13:51 |
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The USPS has published a revision to their Move Update enforcement policy. This revision effects the penalties for nonconformance.
On November 23, 2008 the USPS enacted a requirement that all Presorted First Class and Standard mailings must have their addresses updated for Changes of Address within 95 days prior to mailing. The threshold for failure is set at 30%. To calculate this, the USPS passes a sample of the mailing through a verification machine which checks every address in the sample to see if Change of Address information exists. The total number of correctly updated address changes is compared to the total number of addresses for which Change of Address information is available. If a mailing has failed to update more than 30% of the address changes that are between 95 days and 18 months old, the mailing will have failed the Move Update requirement. Penalties for failing to meet this requirement were delayed until January 2010.
The USPS has considerably loosened the penalties associated with non-compliance. As originally stated, failure to meet the requirement was to result in the forfeit of the entire Presort discount for First Class mail, or a penalty of $0.07 per piece for each piece in a Standard mailing.
The new policy changes the portion of the mailing to which the penalty applies. Instead of applying to the entire mailing, the difference between the calculated error rate and the error threshold is calculated. The penalty then applies to that percentage of the total number of pieces in the mailing.
In addition to this, the penalty has been set as $0.07 per piece for both Standard and First Class mailings.
While this will greatly reduce the dollar amount of the fines associated with noncompliance, it has not changed the way compliance is measured. Move Update remains an important requirement that all Presorted First Class and Standard mail must meet. Post Masters can help you meet this requirement. Contact us for details. |
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Last Updated on Tuesday, 18 August 2009 14:37 |
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USPS Revises Flats Rigidity Requirement |
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Written by Administrator
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Wednesday, 14 April 2010 14:12 |
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The USPS is tightening up the Deflection standard for Automation Flats effective June 7, 2010. Due to the way automated Flat sorting machines process mail, a Flat must have a degree of rigidity in order to be processed without damage. Deflection is the measurement of this rigidity. This is separate from the requirement that Flats have a minimum degree of flexibility.
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Last Updated on Wednesday, 14 April 2010 15:19 |
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New Tabbing Requirements - September 8, 2009 |
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Written by Administrator
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Tuesday, 07 July 2009 14:50 |
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A new tabbing requirement goes into effect September 8, 2009 that will have a heavy impact on mailers who send certain kinds of self-mailers. Self-mailers are letter-sized mailpieces that are not enclosed in an envelope. For this new requirement, the USPS has designated a category of self-mailer called a booklet. The booklet is defined as a letter-sized mailpiece consisting of multiple sheets fastened together with a bound edge. Methods of binding include saddle-stitching, perfect binding, and press-gluing. Large bound booklets may be folded to meet the letter size requirements as long as they remain uniformly thick. The spine or final fold must be either at the bottom or the right edge when reading the delivery address.
The USPS will be requiring a larger tab, 1.5" in diameter, applied to the right and left edges of the booklet. Perforated tabs will no longer be acceptable. While at this time these changes effect only this booklet category, the USPS will be publishing new recommendation for all letter-sized self-mailers this September. It is expected that they will recommend leading and trailing edge tabbing for all self-mailers.
Since tabbing equipment applies tabs parallel to the direction of travel, and this standard requires tabs that perpendicular to the direction of travel, this means that we will need to run multiple passes on booklet mailpieces to meet this requirement. We regret that there will be additional processing time and expense necessary to prepare these mailpieces to USPS standards. Post Masters will be monitoring the demand for this service and will consider investing in additional equipment if the expense is justified.
If a booklet does not comply with these requirements, it will be considered Non-machinable by the USPS. For First Class mail, that will mean a $0.20 per-piece surcharge. For Standard mail, the additional charges will be about $0.10 to $0.30 per piece, depending on sort level.
Further information on this new requirement can be found here: http://pe.usps.com/FRN/Booklets.pdf. Contact Post Masters to have your booklet-style mailpiece evaluated.
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Last Updated on Wednesday, 14 April 2010 14:57 |
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