Postal Concierge E-tips

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2017 Mobile Shopping Promotion

The United States Postal Service® (USPS®) 2017 promotion and incentives program is offering another promotion, this one running from August 1 through December 31, 2017. The Mobile Shopping Promotion is designed to encourage mailers to integrate mobile technology with direct mail to create a convenient method for consumers to do their shopping. Eligible mailings will receive an upfront 2% postage discount. Register now!

Seamless Acceptance

The United States Postal Service® (USPS®) recently re-opened the Seamless Acceptance program to new participants. Seamless Acceptance is designed to streamline the verification, acceptance, payment and induction of mail. This program has benefits for both mailers and the USPS.

USPS Proposes Move Update Price Change

The United States Postal Service® (USPS®) filed a request with the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) on June 30, 2017, for Move Update price and classification changes. The proposed implementation date for these changes is January 21, 2018. The proposal would increase the Move Update postage assessment for non-compliance from $0.07 to $0.08 per piece, change the Move Update verification method, correct erroneous information subjecting USPS Marketing Parcels to the Move Update requirement, and extend Full-Service® Address Change Service (ACS) to certain non-Full-Service mailpieces.

FTP Package Shipment Transmissions Ending in August

Just another gentle reminder that the United States Postal Service® (USPS®) is eliminating the File Transfer Protocol (FTP) method for transmitting package shipment files to comply with recent audit findings, and to provide more secure data transmissions. FTP is currently one of the acceptable transmission methods for submitting shipment files to the Product Tracking and Reporting (PTR) and Electronic Verification System (eVS) systems, but this option will no longer be available effective August 31, 2017.

2017 Personalized Color Transpromo Promotion

The United States Postal Service® (USPS®) 2017 promotion and incentives program is offering a new promotion from July 1 through December 31, 2017. The Personalized Color Transpromo Promotion is designed to incorporate marketing messages highlighted by using color, dynamic variable print and personalization. Mailers who have not participated in the Personalized Color Transpromo Promotion in prior years will only need to satisfy the dynamic color printing requirement; whereas mailers who have participated in this promotion previously will be required to incorporate both dynamically printed color and personalized messaging in the mailpieces. Eligible mailings will receive an upfront 2% postage discount. Register now!

Don't Forget! PostalOne Mandatory Software Update This Weekend

The United States Postal Service (USPS) is issuing a mandatory software update for the PostalOne! production system this weekend. This update will be implemented on Sunday, June 25, 2017. The PostalOne! Production (PROD) system will not be available during this update process, on Sunday morning June 25, 2017. PostalOne! will then be updating the Test Environment for Mailers (TEM) on Monday, June 26, 2017 and TEM will be unavailable during that update period.

Processing Mail.dat Files for Informed Delivery Campaigns After June 24

As you may recall from previous e-Tips, the new USPS Informed Delivery program allows participants to receive a daily email notification, including black and white mailpiece images, of the mail that will be delivered to their mailbox later that day. The email notifications may contain up to 10 mailpiece images, which may be viewed on any computer or smart phone. If you receive more than 10 pieces of mail, additional images are available for viewing via an online dashboard. Mailers can likewise benefit from this program by including additional data in the eDoc to provide users with links to digital content related to the mailpiece. This can greatly enhance the value of the mailpieces by providing users advance notification of the incoming mailpiece and the opportunity to immediately access additional information. Mailers can provide color images of mailpieces, as well as images of flat size pieces, which are not currently available from the USPS. Along with the images, mailers can provide links to related digi

The Intelligence of Intelligent Mail

Every day we see and experience more advances in technology: our lives are full of electronic gadgets that put all sorts of information at our fingertips. Smart people are taking advantage of this electronic “intelligence” to help them perform daily tasks more quickly and easily and to access data using just a click or scroll.

Informed Delivery Campaigns

The star of the show at the recent National Postal Forum in Baltimore MD was definitely Informed Delivery! There were twelve workshops offered on this topic alone, plus the United States Postal Service (USPS) booth in the exhibit hall was all about Informed Delivery. As we told you in an earlier E-tip, the USPS recently rolled out the Informed Delivery program nationally, after pilot testing in limited geographic areas. This program allows participants to receive a daily email notification, including black and white mailpiece images, of the mail that will be delivered to their mailbox later that day. The email notifications may contain up to 10 mailpiece images, which may be viewed on any computer or smart phone. If you receive more than 10 pieces of mail, additional images are available for viewing on an online dashboard. The USPS is reporting that up to 10,000 people per day are signing up for this service.

New IMpb Compliance Assessments coming in July

The United States Postal Service (USPS) is implementing new Intelligent Mail Package Barcode (IMpb) compliance assessments starting in July 2017. If you recall, back in January 2015 the USPS implemented a non-compliance fee of $.20 per package for package mailings not meeting the requirements for Intelligent Mail, such as having the IMpb on the packages. Starting in July– just a few months away! - those assessments will be extended to include the quality of those required elements.