USPS
MOVE UPDATE INFORMATION
Effective
Nov. 23, 2008
The U.S. Postal Service is increasing its effort to
improve the percentage of deliverable mail by revising
the Move Update standards.
The
Move Update standards provide ways for mailers to
reduce the number of mailpieces that require forwarding
or return by the periodic matching of a mailer's address
records with customer-filed change-of-address orders.
The final rule published Sept. 23, 2007, included
the following changes related to Move Update processing:
(a) Increase the minimum frequency of Move Update
processing from 185 calendar days to 95 days prior
to the date of mailing.
(b) Extend the revised Move Update standards to include
all Standard Mail (letters, flats, parcels and Not
Flat-Machinables), as well as automation-rate and
presort-rate First-Class Mail.
The Postal Service and the mailing industry believe
these revised standards are crucial to the business
interests of mailers as well as the continued vitality
of the postal system. In fiscal year 2004, the Postal
Service handled 9.7 billion pieces of undeliverable-as-addressed
(UAA) mail at a cost of $1.85 billion. These revised
standards will result in better address quality by
removing incorrectly addressed pieces from subsequent
mailings, which will reduce UAA mail.
In
cooperation with the mailing industry, we are committed
to reducing UAA mail volume in order to create and
maintain a cost-efficient mailstream. An efficient
automated mailstream works best when mailpieces have
complete, correct and up-to-date addresses. Revisions
to the Move Update standards are needed to improve
the percentage of deliverable addresses for mailings
entered at discounted rates. High-quality addressing,
best possible depth of ZIP+4 Codes and accurate Intelligent
Mail and POSTNET barcodes that result in the delivery
of the mailpiece to the intended recipient in an efficient
manner, should be primary tools that mailers use to
reduce UAA mail volume.
Move
Update Requirement for All Standard Mail
A
key reason for this extension is that one of the conclusions
of an independent study of the cost, volume and characteristics
of UAA mail found that mail entered as Standard Mail
accounted for 62.8 percent of all UAA mail volume.
For
Standard Mail mailers, the new Move Update standard
does not mean that you begin an updating process on
Nov. 23, but rather, starting Nov. 23, mailers must
begin using addresses that were updated within the
previous 95 days. For example, a mailing entered on
Dec. 1 must bear addresses that were updated no earlier
than Aug. 28.
Authorized
methods for Standard Mail to qualify for the Move
Update standards include:
(a) NCOALink processing
(b) FASTforward MLOCR processing (letter mail only)
(c) OneCode ACS (Address Change Service) in conjunction
with an Intelligent Mail barcode and a mailer ID
(d) Address Change Service used with an ACS participant
code and an appropriate on-piece ancillary service
endorsement
(e) Use of an appropriate on-piece ancillary service
endorsement without ACS.
For more
information on Move Update requirements and software
solutions, contact FTI at 800-854-8324 or via e-mail
at fti@freelancetech.com
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