Thursday, February 26, 2009

New Standards for postal indicia location.

FLATS ADDRESS PLACEMENT
EFFECTIVE DATE: March 29, 2009 Reference: DMM 302
The Postal Service adopts new address placement and formatting requirements for Periodicals, Standard Mail®, Bound Printed Matter, Media Mail®, and Library Mail flat-size pieces sent at automation, presorted, or carrier route prices. We also adopt related revisions for automation and presorted First-Class Mail® flats.
The new standards require:
• The entire delivery address in the upper portion of all Periodicals, Standard Mail, Bound Printed Matter, Media Mail, and Library Mail flat-size pieces mailed at automation, presorted, or carrier route prices.
• The new standards define “upper portion” as the top half of a mailpiece; however, we encourage mailers to place the address as close to the top edge as possible (while still maintaining a 1/8-inch clearance from the edges).
• For enveloped or polywrapped flat mail, the upper or top half is either of the shorter edges of the mailpiece. For bound or folded flat mail, the bound or final folded edge must be vertical and on the right side, with an exception for Carrier Route (or Enhanced Carrier Route) saturation mail, where either of the shorter edges can be the top. If the delivery address is on an insert in a polywrapped flat, address must remain in the upper half throughout processing and delivery.
• Mailers may place the address parallel or perpendicular to the top edge within the upper portion of the mailpiece, but not upside down as read in relation to the top edge.
• If a vertical address does not fit in the upper half, address may pass midpoint if placed within 1” of the top edge.
• Mailers must also address ALL presorted, automation (this includes First-Class Mail in addition to the classes of mail mentioned above), and carrier route flatsize mailpieces using a minimum of 8-point type (.080” high), with our preference being all caps and using a sans serif font, or;
• If the mailpiece bears a POSTNET™ or Intelligent Mail® barcode with a delivery point routing code for automation pricing, the address may be a minimum of 6-point type (.065” high) in all capital letters.
• In addition, for ALL automation price pieces, the characters in the address must not overlap, the address lines must not touch or overlap, and each address element may be separated by no more than five blank character spaces.
• Postage and Delivery Address must be on the same side of the mailpiece. Postage must be in the top, right corner of the mailpiece or address area. Postage must have the same “read direction” as the Delivery Address. This does not apply to Periodicals that are not required to display postage.

See illustration below.