Effective October 5, 2009, the Postal Service™ is revising Mailing Standards of the United States Postal Service, International Mail Manual (IMM®) section 382.6 to provide updates to our format standards for mailers who use International Business Reply Service (IBRS).
Consistent with the article titled “DMM Revision: New Barcode Placement Standards for Automation Letters” in Postal Bulletin 22264 (7-30-09, page 6), we are revising IMM standards for IBRS mailpieces 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 IBRS mailpieces 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 corner.
In addition, we are making minor changes to the format requirements in section 382.6 and are updating Exhibit 382.6 accordingly. These additional changes include the following:
1. Consistent with DMM 202.5.1, the barcode clear zone is defined by the area that extends 5/8 of an inch from the bottom and 4-3/4 inches from the right edge of the mailpiece. Previously, we identified this area as 5/8 of an inch from the bottom and 4-1/2 inches from the right edge of the mailpiece.
2. Also, consistent with DMM 202.5.1, when the barcode is printed in the lower right corner of the mailpiece, the leftmost bar must be between 3-1/2 inches and 4-1/4 inches from the right edge of the mailpiece. Previously, we identified this area as between 3-1/4 inches and 4-1/4 inches from the right edge of the mailpiece (we had noted the area only in Exhibit 382.6, but we are also codifying this in section 382.63).
3. For ease-of-use and clarity, we are adding other identifiers to the image in Exhibit 382.6.
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, 8-27-09
