New Simplified Address Mail Preparation Options
The United States Postal Service® (USPS®) announced that it is extending the simplified address mail preparation option to Periodicals and Bound Printed Matter flats and irregular parcels. The new simplified address mail preparation option, effective January 2, 2011, was originally designed only for Standard Mail® saturation (carrier route) flats and irregular parcels. Based on inquiries from the mailing industry, the USPS has now opened up this option to additional classes of mail.
Why The Change?
The USPS put this new option into place in an effort to encourage the use of mail for promotional and other materials by offering a more cost-effective option for regionalized distribution. The USPS anticipates that this simplified addressing and preparation option will reduce costs for businesses wanting to use the mail, while keeping acceptance, transportation and processing costs down for the USPS.
The Rules
Simplified addressing is typically "Current Resident", "Postal Customer"or "PO Boxholder" - rather than personal names and addresses.
The new preparation option is only available for saturation flat-size pieces and irregular parcels that are delivered by Postal Service® city delivery carriers or to PO boxholders at post office locations with city delivery service.
Delivery must be made to each active residential delivery (household residence) or active delivery (residential and business). This information may be obtained from the Delivery Statistics File or the Address Information System (AIS) - both available from the USPS National Customer Support Center (NCSC). The USPS will also be offering a new interactive website, called Simplified Mailing Process, at which mailers can obtain the delivery statistics information for up to 5 ZIP Codes. Regardless of the source of the delivery data, this delivery information must be obtained no more than 90 days prior to the mailing date.
Mailpieces must also meet the physical criteria in DMM 301 (flat size) or DMM 401 (irregular parcels).
To contact the NCSC, use the address or phone number below:
National Customer Support Center
United States Postal Service
6060 Primacy Pkwy Ste 101
Memphis TN 38188-0001
1-800-238-3150
Uses
This new option is ideal for businesses wishing to promote their products or services using the mail, especially for those new to the mail. It is particularly useful for smaller, local businesses wishing to target specific concentrated geographical areas, but larger mailers are not prohibited from using this new option. Since the new option is limited to flat-size pieces or irregular parcels, it is particularly suited to mailing catalogs, flyers, brochures, magazines, newsletters and for product samples. Although this new option has been extended to Periodicals mailers, these mailers should be cautioned that any Periodicals price pieces mailed to simplified addresses will most likely not qualify as subscribers. As such, Periodicals mailers can certainly use this option to promote their Periodicals mailpieces, but they should be careful not to exceed the permitted amount of non-subscriber copies mailed annually, or to jeopardize their Periodicals authorization by diluting their subscriber/requester percentage to below the allowed 50% threshold.
The DMM will be updated in June 2011 to reflect the extension of this new option to Periodicals and Bound Printed Matter mailings, but mailers are permitted to take advantage of this new option immediately. For more details, consult the February 24, 2011 Postal Bulletin and the December 16, 2010 Postal Bulletin.
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