Effective January 21, 2018, the Postal Service™ will revise Mailing Standards of the United States Postal Service, Domestic Mail Manual (DMM®), part 602, to add a new section regarding the use of dual shipping labels.
Some of our industry shipping partners have adopted the use of dual shipping labels, which include both the USPS® address format and their own address format for addressing items. The use of dual shipping labels allows private shippers to decide, after they have accepted items for processing, whether they will fulfill the delivery themselves or provide the items to the Postal Service for delivery. Because these shipping labels do not clearly indicate who made the delivery, the Postal Service has received feedback from customers (who are unable to determine which shipper delivered their items) for items that were never in possession of the Postal Service. To eliminate this confusion, items bearing dual shipping labels that are not tendered to the Postal Service for delivery must clearly indicate the private shipper responsible for delivering the item on the label.
Although we will not publish this clarification in the DMM until January 21, 2018, this revision is effective immediately.
Mailing Standards of the United States Postal Service, Domestic Mail Manual (DMM)
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600 Basic Standards for All Mailing Services
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602 Addressing
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[Add new section 10.0, Dual Shipping Labels, to read as follows:]
10.0 Dual Shipping Labels
Dual shipping labels are used by private shippers to identify both the Postal Service and a private carrier as possible delivery agents. Items bearing dual shipping labels that are not tendered to the Postal Service for delivery must clearly indicate the private shipper responsible for delivering the item.
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We will incorporate this revision into the next update of the online DMM, which is available via Postal Explorer® at pe.usps.com.
— Product Classification, Marketing, 1-4-18
