Effective August 3, 2009, the Postal Service™ is revising Mailing Standards of the United States Postal Service, International Mail Manual (IMM®) part 382 to provide five additional options and greater ease of use for mailers who use International Business Reply Service (IBRS).
With these enhanced revisions, mailers now have the following options:
1. Mailers may now use the Intelligent Mail® barcode (previously, the Postal Service authorized only the POSTNET™ barcode).
2. Mailers may now apply the barcode in the address block of the mailpiece (previously, the Postal Service authorized the barcode only in the barcode clear zone area).
3. Mailers may now use a minimum type size of 1/8-inch high in the business reply legend (previously, the Postal Service authorized a minimum type size of
3/16-inch high).
4. Mailers may now use “INT’L BUSINESS REPLY MAIL/REPONSE PAYEE” in the business reply legend (previously, the Postal Service authorized only “INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS REPLY MAIL/REPONSE PAYEE”).
5. Mailers may now use a minimum clearance of 1/2 inch between the left edge of the mailpiece and the delivery address (previously, the Postal Service required a minimum clearance of 1 inch).
The changes to the business reply legend will assist mailers in fitting the required markings on card-size and small letter-size mailpieces.
We will incorporate these revisions into the next printed version of the IMM and into the monthly update of the online IMM, which is available via Postal Explorer® at http://pe.usps.com.
— Mailing Standards,
Pricing, 7-30-09
