DMM Revision: New Tray Preparation Option for Automation Letters

Effective June 5, 2008, the Postal Service™ is revising Mailing Standards of the United States Postal Ser­vice, Domestic Mail Manual (DMM^®) 235 and 245 allow­ing mailers preparing automation First-Class Mail^® or Standard Mail^® letters to place overflow pieces in the front or back of trays when mailers merge overflow pieces into trays made at the next sortation level, instead of mak­ing separate overflow trays.

Currently, we encourage mailers to avoid preparing sep­arate overflow trays with fewer than 150 pieces by includ­ing the overflow pieces in the next tray level when a tray of 150 or more pieces can be made. In these cases, pieces that are placed in the next tray level currently must be grouped by destination and placed in the front of that tray. This revision will give mailers the option to place overflow pieces in the front or back of a tray as long as the pieces remain grouped by destination.

As a reminder, overflow trays must be prepared when 5–digit scheme combinations include ZIP™ Codes from more than one 3-digit ZIP Code area.

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

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200 Commercial Letters and Cards

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230 First-Class Mail

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235 Mail Preparation

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6.0 Preparing Automation Price Letters

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6.6 Tray Preparation

[Revise the third sentence of the introductory paragraph of 6.6 to describe the option for mailers to place overflow pieces in the front or back of the next tray level as follows:]

***Pieces that are placed in the next tray level must be grouped by destination and placed in the front or back of that tray.***

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240 Standard Mail

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245 Mail Preparation

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7.0 Preparing Automation Price Letters

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7.5 Tray Preparation

[Revise the third sentence of the introductory paragraph of 7.5 to describe the option for mailers to place overflow pieces in the front or back of the next tray level as follows:]

***Pieces that are placed in the next tray level must be grouped by destination and placed in the front or back of that tray.***

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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 and Classification, 6-5-08