Effective January 27, 2013, the Postal Service™ will revise the Mailing Standards of the United States Postal Service, Domestic Mail Manual (DMM®) 602.5.0 to terminate the use of FASTforward® technology as a Move Update option for commercial First-Class Mail®, First-Class Package Service™, Standard Mail®, and Parcel Select Lightweight® mailings.
FASTforward, a licensed hardware/software change-of-address system, was developed in 1996 to enable Multi-Line Optical Character Reader (MLOCR) users to meet the Move Update requirement for their commercial mailings. In February 2009, the USPS™ announced its intention to retire the FASTforward system by the end of FY2012 and migrate the licensees to the newer more robust NCOALink® MPE (Mail Processing Equipment) licensed software system. In August 2011, the USPS established an ad hoc workgroup consisting of postal personnel, MLOCR manufacturers and mailers, and representatives of the National Association of Presort Mailers. The workgroup has resolved the issues to ensure a smooth migration from the FASTforward system to the newer NCOALink MPE system.
The termination date for FASTforward will be January 27, 2013. Mailers may begin to use the NCOALink MPE system at any time as a method of meeting the Move Update standards.
Mailing Standards of the United States Postal Service, Domestic Mail Manual (DMM)
* * * * *
600 Basic Standards for All Mailing Services
* * * * *
602 Addressing
* * * * *
5.0 Move Update Standards
* * * * *
5.2 USPS-Approved Methods
The following methods are authorized for meeting the Move Update standard:
* * * * *
[Revise item 5.2b as follows:]
b. National Change of Address Linkage System (NCOALink). This includes both pre-mail NCOALink processing systems and the physical mailpiece processing equipment system: National Change of Address Linkage System Mail Processing Equipment (NCOALink MPE). See the NCOALink page (NCOALink MPE Solutions) on http://ribbs.usps.gov for more information on the MPE application.
[Delete item 5.2c in its entirety and redesignate current items 5.2d and 5.2e as new 5.2c and 5.2d respectively.]
* * * * *
We will incorporate these revisions into the next monthly update of the online DMM available via Postal Explorer® at http://pe.usps.com.
— Product Classification,
Pricing, 12-27-12
