Policies, Procedures, and Forms Updates

Manuals

DMM Revision: New Commercial Express Mail and Commercial Priority Mail Subchapters

Effective May 12, 2008, the Postal Service™ is revising the Mailing Standards of the United States Postal Service, Domestic Mail Manual (DMM®) to support the price change by creating a commercial Express Mail® subchapter and a commercial Priority Mail® subchapter to separate retail Express Mail and Priority Mail prices and standards from commercial Express Mail and Priority Mail prices and standards. Also, the DMM 110 and 120 sub­chapters will be updated to reflect only those prices and standards available for retail Express Mail and Priority Mail service.

The Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006 (PAEA) gives the Postal Service increased flexibility in pric­ing. On March 4, 2008, the Governors of the Postal Service established new prices and product features for Shipping Services, formerly referred to as competitive products (Express Mail, Priority Mail, Parcel Select®, and Parcel Return Service).

Because of the flexibility in pricing, we were able to create new commercial base prices available through com­mercial channels for Express Mail and Priority Mail service that are lower than the retail prices available through retail channels. To clearly identify the requirements and pricing for each channel (retail and commercial), two new sub­chapters will be created to be available concurrent with the May 12, 2008, price change. Those chapters are Commer­cial Express Mail and Commercial Priority Mail in DMM 410 and 420 respectively. All information regarding retail Express Mail and retail Priority Mail service will remain in subchapters 110 and 120 respectively.

Retail Express Mail service includes those pieces bear­ing postage paid by adhesive stamps or meter stamps. Retail Priority Mail service includes those pieces bearing postage paid by adhesive stamps, meter stamps, or permit imprint that do not include an electronic Confirmation Services barcode.

Commercial Express Mail service includes those pieces bearing postage paid by customers who use an Express Mail Corporate Account (EMCA), including Federal Agency Accounts or Click-N-Ship® service, or are registered end users of PC Postage® service (e.g., Stamps.com, endicia, and Pitney Bowes) using shipping labels. Com­mercial Priority Mail service includes those pieces bearing postage paid by customers who use Click-N-Ship service, registered end-users of PC Postage products when using a shipping label (e.g., Stamps.com, endicia, and Pitney Bowes), and customers using permit imprint with electronic Confirmation Services and, effective October 1, 2008, a barcode under 708.5.0 for the ZIP™ Code of the deliv­ery address.

We will incorporate these revisions into the May 12 update of the online DMM available via Postal Explorer® at http://pe.usps.com and into the next printed version of the DMM.