DMM Revision: New Barcode Placement Standards for Automation Letters

Effective August 3, 2009, the Postal Service™ will revise Mailing Standards of the United States Postal Service, Domestic Mail Manual (DMM^®) 202.5.3 and 507.9.8.1 to implement a more liberal barcode placement standard for mailers printing a barcode in the lower right corner of auto­mation letters, barcoded carrier route letters, or Business Reply Mail^® mailpieces. Mailers preparing courtesy reply mail or meter reply mail for enclosure within automation mailings may place barcodes on these pieces in accor­dance with this new standard.

In the past, mailers placing POSTNET™ or Intelligent Mail^® barcodes in the lower right corner of automation and carrier route letters were required to place the barcode within an area between 3/16 inch and 7/16 inch from the bottom edge and between 3-1/2 inches and 4-1/4 from the right edge of the piece.

In response to requests from mailers, we will revise our standards to increase the upper limit of the allowable verti­cal placement for a POSTNET or an Intelligent Mail barcode placed in the lower right corner of an automation letter, car­rier route letter, or Business Reply Mail mailpiece to 1/2 inch from the bottom of the mailpiece. This new standard will provide an additional 1/16 inch of vertical clearance for mailers choosing to print a barcode in the lower right of automation letters, carrier route letters, or Business Reply Mail mailpieces.

We will incorporate this revision into the next printed version of DMM and into the August update of the online DMM available via Postal Explorer^® at http://pe.usps.com.

— Mailing Standards,
Pricing, 7-30-09