Effective October 4, 2010, the Postal Service™ will revise Mailing Standards of the United States Postal Service, International Mail Manual (IMM®) section 772.11 to reflect that mailpieces are marked with the reason for nondelivery, as defined in Mailing Standards of the United States Postal Service, Domestic Mail Manual (DMM®) 507, at the end of retention period, or sooner, when applicable.
Before this revision, the Postal Service required that mailpieces be returned “at the end of the retention period.” This standard did not take into consideration mailpieces that needed to be returned immediately or did not necessarily have a “retention period.” Examples of mailpieces that are mailed to a U.S. address from a foreign post that would be returned to the sender immediately include a mailpiece that:
n Bears an insufficient address (thereby preventing delivery).
n Contains nonmailable contents such as cigarettes or alcoholic beverages.
Mailing Standards of the United States Postal Service, International Mail Manual (IMM)
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7 Treatment of Inbound Mail
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770 Undeliverable Mail
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772 Mail of Foreign Origin
772.1 Marking
772.11 Reason for Nondelivery
[Revise the text to read as follows:]
At the end of the retention period (see 766), or sooner, when applicable, undeliverable items must be endorsed with the reason for nondelivery (see DMM 507).
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We will incorporate this revision into the next printed version of the IMM and into the monthly update of the online IMM available via Postal Explorer® at http://pe.usps.com.
— Mailing Standards,
Pricing, 8-26-10
