Effective August 2, 2010, the Postal Service™ will revise Mailing Standards of the United States Postal Service, Domestic Mail Manual (DMM®) adding a definition of the term catalog in section 301.1, Physical Standards for Flats.
With the January 2011 PostalOne!® release, a catalog indicator will be added to the drop-down box in the processing category field and to the processing category for Standard Mail® postage statements. Customers who present flat-size Standard Mail mailpieces that meet the DMM description of catalogs will be asked to identify the mailpiece as a catalog in the processing category field.
Mailing Standards of the United States Postal Service, Domestic Mail Manual (DMM)
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300 Commercial Flats
301 Physical Standards
1.0 Physical Standards for Flats
1.1 General Definition of Flat-Size Mail
Flat-size mail other than that in 3.0, Physical Standards for Automation Flats, is:
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[Revise item d and add new item e as follows:]
d. Any piece that may have other size or weight standards for mail claimed at certain prices, mail addressed to certain APO/FPOs, or mail sent by the Department of State to U.S. government personnel abroad.
e. Classified as catalogs mailed under 1.4.
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[Renumber current items 1.4 through 1.8 as 1.5 through 1.9 and add new 1.4 as follows:]
1.4 Catalogs
A catalog is a bound flat-sized mailpiece with at least 16 pages, meeting the criteria in 1.0. Catalogs provide a listing of products offered for sale arranged systematically and include images, photographs or illustrations of the products, descriptive details, and prices. Catalogs must contain an order form, a phone number, or a web address to place orders and provide shipping options for the products offered for sale.
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We will incorporate these revisions into the next printed version of the DMM and into the monthly update of the online DMM, which is available via Postal Explorer® at http://pe.usps.com.
— Mailing Standards,
Pricing, 7-29-10
