Effective March 4, 2013, the Postal Service will revise Mailing Standards of the United States Postal Service, Domestic Mail Manual (DMM®) 707.12, 13, and 14 to correct the omission of standards limiting automation discounts for Periodicals letters and flats to Intelligent Mail® barcodes only.
These standards, announced in the final rule, correction, Federal Register notice (77CFR, 33314-33315) dated June 6, 2012, amended the May 3, 2012, final rule Federal Register notice titled POSTNET Barcode Discontinuation. The standards provided in the corrected final rule are effective January 28, 2013, but were inadvertently omitted from the January 27, 2013, DMM revisions.
Effective January 28, 2013, mailers were required to prepare their Periodicals mailings in accordance with these standards.
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Mailing Standards of the United States Postal Service, Domestic Mail Manual (DMM)
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700 Special Standards
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707 Periodicals
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12.0 Nonbarcoded (Presorted) Eligibility
12.1 Basic Standards
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12.1.3 Barcode Quality
[Revise the text of 12.1.3 as follows:]
Any Intelligent Mail barcode on a mailpiece must be correct for the delivery address and meet the standards in 708.4.0 and 708.3.0.
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13.0 Carrier Route Eligibility
13.1 Basic Standards
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13.1.4 Barcode Quality
[Revise the text of 13.1.4 as follows:]
Any Intelligent Mail barcode on a mailpiece must be correct for the delivery address and meet the standards in 708.4.0 and 708.3.0.
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14.0 Barcoded (Automation) Eligibility
[Revise 14.1 to include the standards in current 14.1.1, with
revised text as follows:]
14.1 Basic Standards
[Revise the introductory text of 14.1 as follows:]
All pieces in a Periodicals barcoded (automation) mailing must:
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[Revise the first sentence of item 14.1.1c as follows:]
c. Bear an accurate Intelligent Mail barcode encoded with the correct delivery point routing code, matching the delivery address and meeting the standards in 202.5.0 (for letters), 302.4.0 (for flats), and 708.4.0.
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[Delete the heading of current 14.1.1, and delete current 14.1.2,
Enclosed Reply Cards and Envelopes, in its entirety.]
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14.5 Address Standards for Barcoded Pieces
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14.5.3 Numeric Delivery Point Barcode
[Revise the text of 14.5.3 as follows:]
A numeric equivalent of the delivery point routing code is formed by adding two digits directly after the ZIP+4® code.
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We will incorporate these revisions into the March 4, 2013 update of the online DMM available via Postal Explorer® at http://pe.usps.com.
— Product Classification,
Pricing, 1-10-13
