Postal Affairs Blog

from a USPS PCCInsider bulletin today…

The Postal Regulatory Commission Service has issued its regulations to implement new modern ratemaking and classification systems for market-dominant and competitive mail products.

The regulations, available on the Postal Regulatory Commission’s website at www.prc.gov, were announced eight months ahead of the statutory deadline set by the new postal law.

Be sure to watch the news for details. With the rules coming out well in advance of when they were due, a rate case in 2008 following these regulations is imminent.

Best wishes,
Lisa

Greetings all,

As of last night there was a USPS service update about closings and evacuations in California, due to the devastating wildfire situation there.

This link will take you to a page where the USPS posts service updates:

http://www.usps.com/communications/news/serviceupdates.htm?from=bannercommunications&page=serviceupdates

It can also be accessed right from the main USPS website home page, in the box for “News and Alerts”, on the right.

Our thoughts are with everyone affected by the fires, and we hope that things will return to normal asap.

Best wishes,
Lisa

One of the best USPS resources is the information provided online by the FAST Team:
https://fast.usps.com/fast/
You do not have to sign in. Click to access the Resources on the left. Go to Reference Documents, a page jam-packed with valuable information.

Yesterday I received a great little FAST newsletter, aptly called “New Travels FAST”. Some highlights:

Mailer Rating Phase III – Scroll down on the FAST Resources page for a presentation on Mailer Rating/Surface Visibility. It is imperative for Mailers to become familiar with this program and how it will affect all drop ship mailers.

Periodicals FAST Appointments – Be sure to get appointment numbers on all 8125s. If you are using WBI’s Post Master or DAT-MAIL, this is easy to do.

And the most exciting news of all -

ELLS External Label List System integration with FAST/DEPS Drop Entry Point System. An electronic Label List that corresponds with the Drop Ship data has been a long time coming, these changes are going to solve a lot of problems and make new things possible. WBI will be working to accommodate the changes and the new Mail Direction File v2 that goes along with it.

Kudos to the FAST team, looking forward to great progress moving ahead.

Best wishes,
Lisa

PS I will be in Washington DC at USPS HQ tomorrow for a Mail.dat Summit. More on that later…

There is a great article on Mail.dat benefits and use in the October issue of the Mailing & Fulfillment Service Association’s publication PostScripts, written by Joe Bailey of Monticello Software.  If you are a MFSA member, be sure to check it out. 

If you are not an MFSA Member, you should be!  MFSA delivers timely, topical information critical to mailers.  View their website here:  http://www.mfsanet.org

For those of you who are not MFSA members, feel free to contact me with any of your general Mail.dat questions, and I will help as I can.  We can also send you a generic IDEAlliance-produced brochure on Mail.dat, to help educate you and your team on this Industry standard for electronic mailing information, upon request.

Best wishes,
Lisa

Important final specifications for the Intelligent Mail barcodes have been published by the USPS. We have been working to incorporate the Intelligent Mail Sack and Tray Labels, as well as the Intelligent Mail Pallet Placard barcode. We already support OneCode Confirm Service.

Intelligent Mail is going to be very important to mailers in the coming months. Learn whatever you can (there is a link to some USPS PCC presentations in an earlier blog entry).

DAT-MAIL users, if you are interested in Beta testing the IMCL (Intelligent Mail Container Labels), drop me a note
lbowes@windowbook.com

Best wishes for a great week!
Lisa

From the USPS DMM Advisory -

Sizing The IM Barcode
Need the new specs for the Intelligent Mail (IM) barcode? A document detailing revised height and clearance requirements is posted on the Rapid Information Bulletin Board System (RIBBS) website at http://ribbs.usps.gov/onecodesolution. Changes to the specifications were requested by mailers of flat-size mailpieces. The barcode height now can be between 0.125″ and 0.165″. In addition, we also reduced the clear zone requirement to 0.028″ above and below the barcode. The 0.125″ clear zone on each end of the barcode remains unchanged.

The RIBBS website also has revised specification documents for the IM container barcode and IM tray label.

For more information on how you can make your mail smarter, contact the Intelligent Mail group at imaq@usps.gov.

The new flat mail address standards proposed have to do with preparation for the USPS new FSS machines (Flat Sequencing Sorters). Mailers need to keep on top of the changes that are coming due to FSS implementation.

There is a good article in DM News

http://www.dmnews.com/cms/dm-news/direct-mail/42656.html

And there is a PCC Workshop in a Box power point presentation on the USPS Postal Customer Council page here

http://www.usps.com/nationalpcc/pccworkshopbox.htm

Any questions about what FSS implementation might mean to you, drop me a note.

Best wishes,
Lisa Bowes

Two proposals outlined in today’s Federal Register, comment period through 12/10/07:

The first proposal has to do with new address placement and formatting requirements, and an 11-digit POSTNET or Intelligent Mail barcode required on all automation-rate pieces.
Review here: HTML

The second proposal, specific to letters, has new spacing and type size requirements for addressing.
Review here: HTML

It is very important that mailers review and comment on these proposed specifications.

Best wishes,
Lisa