Policies, Procedures, and Forms Updates

Manuals

DMM Revision: New Shipper Paid Forwarding Ancillary Service Endorsement Option

Effective December 6, 2010, the Postal Service™ will revise the Mailing Standards of the United States Postal Service, Domestic Mail Manual (DMM^®) 507.1.5, 507.2.3.5, 507.2.3.6 and 507.4.2.9 to provide a new endorsement option “Change Service Requested” for mailers using Ship­per Paid Forwarding (SPF) for Standard Mail^®, Package Services, or Parcel Select^® parcels.

Currently, the only endorsement available to mailers using SPF is “Address Service Requested”, which allows the mailer to pay the parcel forwarding postage if the cus­tomer has moved and filed a change-of-address notice with the Postal Service. If the parcel is undeliverable and not forwardable, it is then returned to the sender and return postage is collected.

Change Service Requested for use with SPF, is some­what similar to First-Class Mail^® Change Service Requested (Option 2 under DMM 507.1.5.1). This addi­tional SPF option allows for the forwarding of a parcel, but it doesn’t require the return of the mailpiece if it cannot be forwarded. With this option, the mailer pays the forwarding charges through an Address Change Service (ACS) account, in addition to the electronic address correction fee for the ACS record.

Change Service Requested for SPF is for mailers that want to avoid having their customers pay forwarding charges, but prefer not to have the parcel returned when forwarding is not possible.

We are also deleting the word “machinable” from DMM 507.2.3.5 and DMM 507.4.2.9. Machinable, irregular, and nonmachinable parcels are processed the same in the Postal Service Computer Forwarding System (CFS), and the forwarding charges are the same for both. Therefore, there is no need to restrict SPF to machinable parcels only.

Mailing Standards of the United States Postal Service, Domestic Mail Manual (DMM)

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500 Additional Mailing Services

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507 Mailer Services

1.0 Treatment of Mail

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1.5 Treatment for Ancillary Services by Class of Mail

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1.5.3 Standard Mail

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Exhibit 1.5.3a Treatment of Undeliverable Standard Mail

[Revise Exhibit 1.5.3a table for Change Service Requested as follows:]

 

MAILER ENDORSEMENT	USPS TREATMENT OF UAA PIECES
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“Change Service Requested”1, 5	If no change-of-address order on file, or if change-of-address order is on file and mailer does not participate in Shipper Paid Forwarding: Notice of new address or reason for nondelivery provided (address correction fee charged); piece disposed of by USPS. If change-of-address order on file and mailer participates in Shipper Paid Forwarding: n Months 1 through 12: Piece forwarded (no charge); separate notice of new ad­dress provided (address correction fee charged). n Months 13 through 18: Piece disposed of by USPS; separate notice of new ad­dress provided (address correction fee charged). n After month 18: Piece disposed of by USPS; separate notice of reason for nondelivery provided (address correc­tion fee charged). Restrictions: The following restrictions apply: (1) Delivery Confirmation is the only extra service permitted with this endorsement. (2) This endorsement is not permitted for Standard Mail containing hazardous materials.

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1.5.4 Package Services and Parcel Select

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Exhibit 1.5.4 Treatment of Undeliverable Package Services Mail and Parcel Select

[Revise Exhibit 1.5.4 table for Change Service Requested as follows:]

 

MAILER ENDORSEMENT	USPS TREATMENT OF UAA PIECES
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“Change Service Requested”3	If no change-of-address order on file, or if change-of-address order is on file and mailer does not participate in Shipper Paid Forwarding: Notice of new address or reason for nondelivery provided (address correction fee charged); piece disposed of by USPS. If change-of-address order on file and mailer participates in Shipper Paid Forwarding: n Months 1 through 12: Piece forwarded (Package Services single-piece forward­ing postage charged via ACS); separate notice of new address provided (elec­tronic address correction fee charged). n Months 13 through 18: Piece disposed of by USPS; separate notice of new ad­dress provided (address correction fee charged). n After month 18: Piece disposed of by USPS; separate notice or reason for nondelivery is provided (address correc­tion fee charged). Restrictions: The following restrictions apply: (1) Delivery Confirmation and Signature Confirmation are the only extra services permitted with this endorsement. (2) This endorsement is not permitted for Package Services containing hazardous materials.

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2.0 Forwarding

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2.3 Postage for Forwarding

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2.3.5 Standard Mail

[Revise second sentence of 2.3.5 to remove the words “machinable” as follows:]

***Shipper Paid Forwarding, used in conjunction with Address Change Service (4.0), provides mailers of Stan­dard Mail parcels an option of paying forwarding postage at the applicable single-piece First-Class Mail or Priority Mail price.***

[Revise the title and text of 2.3.6 as follows:]

2.3.6 Package Services and Parcel Select

Package Services and Parcel Select pieces are subject to the collection of additional postage at the applicable price for nonlocal forwarding. Shipper Paid Forwarding, used in conjunction with Address Change Service (4.0), provides mailers who ship Package Services and Parcel Select par­cels an option of paying forwarding postage instead of the addressee paying postage due charges. The addressee may refuse any Package Services or Parcel Select piece that has been forwarded. This refusal does not revoke the right to have other Package Services and Parcel Select pieces forwarded. If the addressee does not want to pay forwarding postage for all Package Services and/or Parcel Select pieces, the addressee must ask the postmaster of the new address to use Form 3546 to notify the postmaster of the old address to discontinue the forwarding of Pack­age Services and/or Parcel Select pieces. Unless endorsed “Change Service Requested,” all Package Services and Parcel Select pieces are delivered as directed without addi­tional postage charge when the old and new addresses are served by the same Post Office.

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4.0 Address Correction Services

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4.2 Address Change Service (ACS)

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4.2.9 Shipper Paid Forwarding

[Revise second sentence of 4.2.9 as follows:]

***It allows mailers of Standard Mail, Package Services, and Parcel Select parcels to pay forwarding charges via approved ACS participant code(s).***

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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 available via Postal Explorer^® at http://pe.usps.com.

— Mailing Standards,
Pricing, 11-18-10